The Amazing Spider Man: Night of the Spider Slayer
by MadCapMunchkin
Summary: Norman Osborn wants Spider-Man dead. Meanwhile, Peter Parker's feeling pretty good about balancing his life as Peter Parker and his life as Spider-Man, but all of that is about to come crashing down around his head. Direct sequel to "ASM: The Law of the Jungle".
1. SpiderMan Meets Spider Slayer

**A/N: Face front, true believers! MadCap's is back with the next tale of your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man! Merely a month after the events of "The Law of the Jungle", Peter finds himself facing a brand new enemy hinted at in the previous story, and even more…**

**And if you're thinking the Green Goblin, it's not him. Not yet.**

**Chapter One  
**Spider-Man Meets Spider-Slayer

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?"

"Hmm…skin tight red and blue suit, shoots _webs_ everywhere, wears a mask…yep, I'm _definitely_ Batman." Peter Parker snorted sarcastically, the roll of his eyes unseen under the mask he had just spoken of. He secured the three crooks he had just dealt with to a wall with a blast of his webbing. "_Totally_ makes sense to me…" He said, shooting off a webline and swinging away as the restrained crooks yelled obscenities at him.

"Does nobody read the newspaper anymore?"

* * *

"You're late."

"I'm sorry, Gwen." Peter said as he bounded the last few steps to where Gwen Stacy stood at the large fountain. He had gotten to a nearby building, managed to get his casual outfit on over his Spider-Man suit. At least he hoped he wouldn't need it again this evening. Of course, with Gwen giving him that disapproving look, he doubted he'd get much of a chance to get away, not that he wished to. "Got caught up trying to get out here…"

"No excuses." Gwen said, raising a hand as she fixed him with a look. "Harry and Liz have been waiting for twenty minutes."

"Wait…Liz?" Peter blinked, confused.

"Yes…" Gwen said, nodding. "She and Flash broke up a few weeks ago. I told you this before. Honestly, Peter, do you ever pay attention?"

"Whenever I can help it." Peter said, laughing lightly as he brushed a hand across the back of his neck.

"Well, c'mon. Let's go greet the _happy_ couple." Gwen said, and Peter didn't miss her oh so slight emphasis on happy and just sighed at it. But Gwen had already started off and Peter moved to follow her.

"Hey, you guys!"

Peter was glad for the distraction, seeing Harry wave to the two of them. And there, next to him, was Liz Allen. He now far better remembered the conversation with Gwen, where she had mentioned that Liz and Flash had gotten into some sort of an argument or another which had led to their breakup. That didn't surprise him so much, but what _did_ surprise Peter was Liz's choice of rebound.

'_Probably the Osborn name tacked onto that…_' Peter thought, though he wondered if Liz really was that shallow.

"Hey, Harry! Hey Liz!" Gwen said, smiling and waving as she walked up with Peter.

"Hey…Peter. Gwen." Liz smiled a bit, waving, though she was just a bit uncomfortable from the look of it. '_I don't know, if I knew I was double dating with a boy my ex had beaten the piss out of on a regular basis, I'd feel a little uncomfortable myself._'

"Hey Harry, Liz." Peter said, nodding to both parties, offering a bit of a smile.

"Alright, so…we heading in?" Harry asked, gesturing over to the movie theater at the far end of the park. "I figure if we get there now, we might get there before the opening credits."

"Sorry." Peter sighed, looking away.

"Oh, don't mind Peter." Gwen said, waving her hand. "Let's just go." With that, the four of them started walking off toward the movie theater in silence. Peter really didn't like uncomfortable silences, so he attempted to say something, but nothing much would come out.

'_I'd give just about anything for this to not be _completely_ awkward_…' Peter thought, and was answered when his Spider-Sense went off. '_Ah, funny voice in my head that tells me when I'm in trouble, what would I do without you?'_ He thought as his pulled Gwen out of the way of something that rushed by very fast.

"What the hell was that?" Harry exclaimed, having seen it as well. Luckily, he and Liz had been out of the path of whatever just careened through the park and was now tearing up property and forcing the average passerby into a panic in flight. It was definitely robotic, and it looked like.

"…is that a giant spider?" Liz asked, immediately freaked out and backing away.

"It does look like that." Gwen said. And Peter had to agree, especially now that he got a good look at it. The same eight legs a spider would have, its body shinning in the lamplight. And even as they gazed at it, it seemed to be turning around.

"I think we should get out of here, guys…" Peter said, pulling Gwen back a bit as he backed away from the thing which had now landed on the ground and was now moving in their direction. To his relief, Gwen didn't resist him pulling her away. "Like…now?"

"Yeah, c'mon, let's go." Harry said, grabbing Liz's hand and then finding himself pulled along as the spider robot began to charge towards them on all eight of its legs.

'_This looks like a job for Spider-Man…_' Peter thought as the four of them joined the crowd that was now escaping as fast as their feet could carry them. His Spider-Sense was going crazy, far more so than it had in a while, and he knew that his alter ego would likely need to step in to handle the situation. '_But I can't change without exposing my identity…_' He thought as he pulled Gwen along, who was keeping pace with him. A quick glance saw the movement of Harry and Liz running just a few feet behind them.

"_Cross species detected."_ A mechanical voice from behind them spoke, and Peter knew that it had to be from the robot spider. "_Beginning capture measures._"

'_Oh, crud…he means me…_' Peter thought as they passed through the trees, hoping to avoid the robot. In the middle of the trees, his Spider-Sense finally stopped.

"Everybody okay?" Peter asked.

"Yeah." Gwen said, and Peter felt her squeeze his hand. He squeezed back, giving her affirmation that it was all alright.

"I'm good." Harry's voice he heard and he saw him over by the trees with Liz, standing by the tree trunk out of breath.

"I'm here." Liz said, clearly in better shape than her date, hardly seeming phased at all by that quick run. Peter supposed that was the cheerleading training she'd had.

"Okay…" Peter said. "So…any idea what that thing was?"

"No idea." Harry said. "Hey, where did it go?" Peter looked up and around. The robot seemed to have disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared, even more so in fact.

"I'm gonna go out and see if it's still out there." Peter said, letting go of Gwen's hand and heading out the way they had come.

"What? Nuh-uh, you don't." Gwen said, grabbing Peter at the shoulder once again. "You're going all kinds of nowhere."

"But Gwen-"

"Where's Harry?" Liz's voice broke in. Peter looked over to see that Harry had indeed disappeared.

"I'll go after him. You two wait here." Peter said, moving out from the cover of the trees.

"Peter! PETER!" He heard Gwen yelling out as he rushed forward to check the area. Pulling off his jacket and shirt to reveal his outfit beneath, kicking off the jeans as well as he pulled his mask from his jacket and quickly put it on.

"Alright, you guys hang around over here." He muttered to himself as he shot off a webline and secured his clothing in a makeshift web bag which he then stuck to a tree nearby. '_Alright, now let's go see if we can…_' He thought just as his Spider-Sense kicked in once again. He flipped backwards to dodge what he realized afterwards was a laser blast.

"Hey! Do you have a license for that?" Peter snapped as though angry at the robotic spider that now faced him. The creature responded with another laser blast which Peter quickly dodged. "I'm gonna take that as a 'no'." He said as he webbed at the two front most legs, attempting to trip it up. The propulsion system saw the end of that as it fired up from the ground, hovering about his head. Peter leaped up, bounding off of a tree branch and landing square on the creature's head, which immediately began attempting to buck him off.

"Yippee ki yay!" Peter called out as he held on for dear life, but even now found his fingers slipping. '_It's gotta be some kind of non-stick material…but I can_ stick_ to non-stick…_' He thought, rather worried about losing his grip on the situation. And still the spider robot continued to try and force him off, the head rotating wildly. '_I better figure out something before he gives me the shakedown…_' Peter thought as he quickly came up with the idea of pulling at the paneling, reasoning that there might be an override switch or just pulling out a few wires would do the trick.

His hand grasped at the panel, pulling with all his might. After a moment, he heard the metal begin to groan as he started to separate the covering from the head of the thing that was desperately trying to get rid of its newest hood ornament. To Peter's surprise, the head detached only moments after he had begun pulling at the panel, him falling to the ground with it. He leaped away at the last moment and landed on all fours on the ground, looking up to see the body of the spider still floating above. It turned in the air, attempting to make an escape.

"Oh, no you don't!" Peter said, making the proper hand motion and flicking his wrist to shoot out…air. '_What? I thought I reloaded these when I landed!_' He cursed his absentmindedness in his attempt to get down to the park quickly earlier.

"Spider-Man!"

Peter turned to see Harry Osborn rushing up.

"What are you doing here?" Peter asked.

"I went to go find help, but I couldn't find anyone. I got back to Gwen and Liz, but they said Peter had run off to find me." Harry said.

'_So the robot didn't go after him, good._' Peter thought, relieved.

"Well, I don't think that thing will be bothering anyone without its head." Peter said, though he knew he had just seen that the lack of its head did nothing to hinder that robot.

"Why is that light on it blinking red?"

Harry's question made Peter turn and he did indeed see one of the "eyes" of the thing was blinking. He grabbed at what appeared to be a small slit in the paneling to pull out the faceplate, revealing four red numbers that were counting down from one minute.

"Oh, not good!" Peter said, realizing what it was. He quickly turned to Harry. "Quick, get back to the others."

"What are you gonna do, Spider-Man?" Harry asked.

"Don't worry about me, I've got to get this bomb out of here before it goes off." Peter said, quickly reaching into his pouch to pull out another web cartridge and quickly loading it in, shaking the glove back into its proper place before he webbed up the bomb into a bag much similar to the one he'd stashed his civilian clothes into. He quickly looked around and picked a low rise building, just high enough for him to try out his idea.

"A-Alright." Harry said, running back toward the trees where they'd all taken cover. Peter could already see Gwen and Liz coming out, seeing and hearing the commotion.

'_At least they're out of harm's way…_' Peter thought as he grabbed the bomb and leaped up, shooting off a line from his loaded wrist and swinging off, finding the effort not as easy with just the one shooter. Sooner than later (and with a little running up the wall) Peter found himself on top of a nearby building. '_Not enough time to disarm it…and I don't know the first thing about disarming bombs…_' He thought. '_Hope I can throw it high enough_.' He swung the webbed weapon around and around in his hand to build up momentum before sending it careening off into the area.

It promptly exploded, taking out some of the windows of a nearby taller building and sending a shockwave that even knocked Peter off of his feet. It was a long time after that that Peter realized he wasn't dead, and he had apparently suffered no grievous injuries.

"And our hero emerges triumphant, the cheers of a grateful city deafening his ears." Peter muttered as he rose to his feet. '_Well, _something's_ ringing in my ears._' He thought as quickly reloaded his webshooters whilst leaping back down into the park, his hearing returning to him quickly enough to hear. "-pider-Man! Spider-Man!"

"Yes, citizens?" Peter asked, seeing Gwen and Liz running up along with Harry in tow.

"Great job taking down that robot, Spider-Man…" Liz said, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear, and Peter could have just _felt_ her eyes looking him up and down in his skin-tight suit. "It's not one of yours, is it?" She cooed.

"Oh, um…no, no, not at all." Peter said.

"Spider-Man, I know this might be a bit much to ask, but have you seen Peter?" Gwen asked, cutting Liz off from asking something else.

"Peter? Yes, I saw him." Peter said, nodding. "I sent him to go head to the nearest PD, see if we could get some of the boys in blue down here." '_No, Pete, really, try to sound a _little_ more like Clark Kent. Moron._'

"We better get after him, then." Harry said.

"I have to agree with Richie Rich over there." The four of them turned to see Eddie Brock approaching them, holding his camera. After getting a shot of the crater that had been left behind from the spider's quick departure, he turned and got a snap shot of Peter. "Spider-Man, I'm Eddie Brock with the _Daily Bugle_."

"Ah, yes, the nice young man who keeps getting my shots in the paper. It's nice to meet you properly at last." Peter said, hiding a smile that would have split his face behind his mask.

"I was wondering if I could get a few words from you about the robot attack you just prevented?" Eddie asked, holding up a recording device he'd just pulled from his pocket.

"No matter the threat, Spider-Man is here for New York City." Peter said, thinking the choice of words just a little too cheesy. '_Well, when have you ever been good on the fly?_' He reminded himself. With that, he extended his arms to the sky, aiming for a nearby tree to swing around. "Take care, all of you. I'll send Peter back this way if I see him." He promised them before he shot off around the trees and out into the city…only to loop around once he was out of their sight and land back into the trees, quickly finding and retrieving his clothing.

After reclothing and checking himself so that none of the outfit beneath showed, Peter peeked out to see them all still standing there. A moment later, and he ran out to the other four.

"Guys! Guys!"

"Peter, you just missed it!" Harry exclaimed.

"Pete, where the hell did you go for _this_?" Eddie exclaimed, showing the crater.

"I ran for the police station, then I heard that explosion go off and I ran back to see if everyone was okay." Peter said, acting as though he were out of breath when he actually was breathing quite well.

"We're fine." Gwen said, walking over and looping her arm through Peter's. "Spider-Man managed to stop that thing."

"I heard." Peter said, laughing. "What exactly happened?"

"He leaped up on it, and like…its head popped off and the other part of it got away." Harry said, explaining it like a nine year old trying to explain to his parents why he just _had_ to have the latest video game on a store shelf. "And then the head fell to the ground and Spider-Man just _threw_ it up into the air and it just exploded!"

"He's a dreamy daredevil, that one." Liz mused, smiling as she was no doubt thinking of what she'd just seen. Peter felt just a wee bit uncomfortable with that.

'_Still, I'm going to have to go out after that thing…_' Peter thought, '_I wish I had had one of my Spider Tracers on me._' But there was nothing that could be done about that now, or maybe even tonight. There was no doubt in his mind, however, that anyone with the technology to build the thing he had just fought was going to send out more.

"Well, I guess this means our movie night is ruined." Gwen said, pouting a bit.

"Oh, c'mon, we can still go by that café." Peter said, trying to cheer her up. "How about a hazelnut macchiato?"

"Mmm…that actually sounds pretty good." Gwen said.

"Awesome, 'cause I've been dying to try one." Peter teased and earned a roll of the eyes and a playful smile from Gwen while Harry, Liz, and Eddie all laughed.

"Well, I've got to head back home and get these developed." Eddie said, gesturing to his camera. "I'll catch you guys later." He moved to fistbump with Peter and get a hug from Gwen, then gave respectful (if somewhat uncomfortable) nods to Harry and Liz before he headed out from the park.

"What's wrong with him?" Harry asked. Peter knew his friend was still quite oblivious to Eddie's problems with the name of Osborn.

"Don't worry about it." Peter said. "He's probably just swamped. Working at the _Bugle_ and over at ESU, along with his studies…probably has him going batty." With that, Harry seemed to drop it with an apathetic shrug and the four of them left the scene of all the craziness that had occurred in the park.

* * *

"SMYTHE!"

Alastair Smythe knew that tone, and when his employer used that tone, it was _never_ a good thing. He timidly looked up from the control panel where he had been feeding commands to his Spider Slayer, which had returned only moments before without a head, and thus without its records system intact.

"Yes, Mr. Osborn?"

"Why is that creature _NOT_ carrying the dead body of Spider-Man in its pincers?"

"Spiders don't have pincers, Mr. Osborn…"

"YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN, ALASTAIR!" Norman Osborn yelled at him, visibly shaking even Alastair himself. After a moment, Norman seemed to calm himself further and spoke again. "That's four point six million dollars I just snuck into your work into robotics and now it's a headless scrap pile…"

"But at least we know the homing system is working properly." Alastair said as he walked over to his creation with was now standing dormant and waiting for repairs.

"Do we at least have the records?" Norman asked. "The video and audio records?"

"All stored in the head." Alastair said. "And I did warn you that the wireless uplink wasn't going to be up for a week so the system could fully synchronize."

"So we have nothing?" Norman snapped, clearly irate.

"Not at all." Alastair said, moving around and pointing out with one of his instruments the tearing of the panels of the neck. "Spider-Man appears to have found a weak spot that I did not anticipate."

"Save for the _exploding head_?" Norman snapped again, glaring daggers at the man.

"It was a surefire way that nothing would be traced back to you, sir." Alastair said. "No files, no records of any kind. But I will take care next time to lodge the device within the body proper of the creature."

"What makes you think there'll be a next time, Alastair?" Norman asked incredulously, looking almost amused at Alastair's proclamation.

"You want Spider-Man destroyed." Alastair said. "This is a scientific endeavor was much as it is a militant one, Mr. Osborn. And being a man of science such as you are, I'm sure you know trial and error is a big part of the process."

"You will not be allowed many more _errors_, Alastair. Get to work." Norman said, turning and leaving Alastair to his laboratory.

* * *

**A/N: Whelp, looks like Spidey's got quite a lot on his hands. And _boy_ it ain't gonna be getting any better any time soon. Trust me, it's gonna get worse, and this little exercusion of Smythe's is just the beginning of the madness. Stay tuned!**


	2. A Chance Meeting

**A/N: Alright, now on to Chapter Two!**

**Oh, and for those who have been asking me (in this story and the previous one) to have Peter tell Gwen that he's Spider-Man, I have a plan for that, please have faith in my storytelling. To everything, there is a reason. When it is time for Gwen to learn, she will. Promise.**

**Chapter Two  
**A Chance Meeting

"We're coming, Eddie, we're coming." Peter said as he and Gwen moved along. Just after school, Eddie had come and picked them up, told them they just _had_ to come to Doctor Warren's laboratory at ESU, saying the Professor had given the okay and that they were more than welcome.

"Well, c'mon!" Eddie said. "Doc Warren can get a little testy if we're not on time."

"_Testy_?" Peter mouthed to Gwen, who just shrugged. Peter, of course, knew Miles Warren. The guy was a brilliant geneticist, one of the best of his generation. He had the few peers in the likes of Doctor Connors. Recently, though, Peter remembered he'd come out with some theory or another that had been largely scoffed at by the scientific community – either for being ludicrous or extremely unethical.

'_Cloning! That was it._' Peter thought, remembering what he'd read about it. The idea itself seemed kind of ridiculous to him, like a bad comic book plot waiting to happen. Still, there had to be some kind of validity to it, Peter was sure. Otherwise, ESU wouldn't have given him a lab.

"Who's funding him, anyway?" Peter asked.

"Huh?" Eddie asked as he swiped his identification card in the slot by the door. There was an affirmative beep and the small red light on the slide turned green as they heard the door lock click to open. "I don't know."

'_Huh…I wonder._' Peter thought, remembering just who had been funding Doc Connors' research. If Warren's research went the same way, Peter knew that the consequences could be catastrophic, perhaps even more so. '_Clones…I'd hate to think how someone could use _that_ like Osborn just might…_' He thought, shaking his head. Cloning in and of itself raised far too many ethical questions, as well as philosophical ones. But to put the ability like that into the hands of Norman Osborn, at least the Norman Osborn that Peter knew, would be something that humanity would suffer greatly for.

"Good of you all to get here on time."

"Sorry, Doctor Warren." Eddie said.

"Why?" A tall, lanky man in a white coat greeted them as they entered the lab spoke, standing next to a series of windows that were blocked off from the other side. He had piercing black eyes that made Peter think immediately of long, dark tunnels that seemed to have no end. And over his eyes, resting against his forehead, were a pair of protective goggles. "I said it was good of you all to get here on time."

"Right…sorry," Eddie said. "Uh, Peter Parker and Gwen Stacey, meet Doctor Miles Warren." Peter and Gwen stepped forward to meet Warren, the scientist shaking the young lady's hand first before he shook Peter's.

"Pleasure to meet the both of you." Warren said. "I assume that Mr. Brock has informed you both a little about my research."

"Yes, sir." Both Peter and Gwen said at once.

"Ah…yes." Warren said. "Well, we only have the small test facility set up as we speak, but it is only the beginning of our efforts, as I will show you right here tonight."

"I thought technology of this caliber would be under lock and key." Peter piped up as Warren lead them into his laboratory. "Just the card swipe seems a little…lo-tech…"

"Oh, I'm afraid not." Warren said. "As some members of the board have put it, my research is too far in the experimental stages to warrant much of their attention. _Experimental_, mind you, not _applicable_ at the time. Hence the "lo-tech" as you put it, Mr. Parker." He waved his hand. "It doesn't matter. They have kindly given me and Mister Brock here the space, and here we work to hopefully create a great gift for humanity."

"Cloning?" Gwen questioned.

"Yes, exactly." Warren said. "Say you had a man with lung cancer. He _could_ have a transplant done and be forced to take anti-rejection drugs just to stay alive. But with this technology, we need merely take a single cell of his healthy tissue that remains, and we can fully recreate his lungs."

"So you just clone organs?" Peter asked as they walked up to a table that had been set up.

"For now, we haven't been able to clone much of anything without…less than pleasant results." Warren explained, and Peter looked over to see Eddie looking away, seemingly disgusted by something. "However, tonight, we are going to attempt our first cloning on our test subject."

"An animal?" Peter questioned further.

"Yes, of course, Mr. Parker." Warren answered. "I would hardly dream of testing the technology on a human this early on in development."

"Peter's just a bit into his science fiction, Doctor Warren." Eddie said, laughing a little.

"Ah, I see. Well, not to worry, Peter. No progenitor machines around here." Warren said with a laugh. "Well, at least not one built to work like those on _Doctor Who_." He walked over to a small panel on the desk top, pressing a single button. There was a mechanical whirring and Peter looked up (as did Gwen and Eddie) to see a device lowering from the ceiling.

"Is that what I think it is?" Peter nearly shouted, his eyes going wide as he could feel his heart hammering from the excitement right there.

"If you mean a neogenic recombinator, then the answer is yes." Warren said with a smile. The device had lowered itself completely, resembling a long box with the barrel of a gun attached at the end of it. Several dials and levers marked along its length as it was supposed by a mechanical arm from the ceiling. "The next step in genetic manipulation. I got it on a loan from Michael Morbius, a colleague of mine."

Peter of course knew what the neogenic recombinator was. The device could transmit lines of genetic code as essential an electronic signal that was reconstituted after hitting its target as whatever it had been before the recombinator had gotten a hold of it.

"Beautiful piece of work," Peter muttered as he gazed upon the thing, his hand shaking a bit as he tried to steady his glasses, gazing upon this marvel of scientific effort. Then, of course, there was something stamped onto the side in large green lettering that killed his enthusiasm almost outright.

It was the Oscorp logo. Norman Osborn seemed to have had a stake in the creation of the beautiful device before him. Suddenly, to Peter at least, it didn't seem such a wonderful tool anymore. Still, he attempted to maintain at least the appearance of his former enthusiasm.

"Unfortunately, my modifications to the machine aren't complete." Warren said. "But I do like showing it off."

"So this _isn't_ how you perform your experiments?" Gwen asked. Peter could tell from the look of her that she'd be as curious as he was to see how the machine in action.

"Oh, goodness, no!" Warren laughed. "We're not even sure if the solution would remain stable through the transfer."

"Then how will you…clone…whatever you're planning to clone?" Peter asked.

"Mr. Brock…are they ready?"

"Warmed up and ready to go, Doctor." Eddie said, standing at a control panel opposite the one that Warren stood at, manipulating the controls. There was a loud whirring and Peter turned to see the windows that had been covered when they had entered were now beginning to lower, revealing a whole other room that he hadn't noticed before.

Within, he could make out two large devices, both easily large enough for a grown man to stand within.

"What are-?"

"Pods, Pete." Eddie said, grinning as he walked over, his arms crossed over his chest. "Trust me, you're gonna dig this."

"Mister Brock. Will you please get Willard set up?" Doctor Warren asked, walking over to where Peter and Gwen stood. Brock nodded and walked over to the wall, pressing a button on the small keypad next to one of the windows, the paneling of wall to the left of it rose up into the ceiling.

"Willard?" Gwen asked.

"That would be our test subject for the evening, Miss Stacy." Warren said as he was standing next to them, rubbing his palms together rapidly. "You both will get quite the treat. To be two of the first four people to see a multi-cellular organism successfully cloned."

"You think it will work?" Peter asked, getting an elbow from Gwen and this time not even registering that she had nudged him.

"Oh, I have complete faith." Warren said, nodding his head. "Mr. Brock and I have gone over all the particulars. It has been the better part of fifteen years that I've been working on this. Tonight, we might finally get to see some results."

'_I remember someone else saying things like that…_' Peter thought as his attention turned from the scientist back to Eddie, who had opened one of the pods and was now placing what appeared to be a small rat within, held within a small, steel cage. Doctor Connors had said things like that before, had been researching genetics exhaustively throughout his years in his profession. He'd been considered an authority on the genetics of reptiles, and was a visionary pioneering into the field of cross-species genetics.

And it had nearly cost him his career and his life when he had found his "breakthrough". Peter just hoped that the same thing wouldn't happen to Doctor Warren.

"This will really be something." Gwen said.

"I'm just hoping we don't end up with a giant mutated mouse running around New York." Warren said slyly, making a joke that Gwen laughed at. Peter, not finding it funny in the least, gave a chuckle that seemed just a little too forced. Fortunately, neither of the two people there seemed to notice. They spent a moment in silence before Eddie returned.

"Everything's running optimally, Doctor Warren." Eddie reported as he sealed the door panel once again.

"And Willard is secure within the first pod?" Warren inquired.

"Yes, sir." Eddie said. "And the connection between the pods is running at full. We're ready." Peter wondered if this would indeed work. The two gentlemen running the operation seemed to think so. Well, one of them did. Peter wasn't getting that much of a vibe from Eddie on how he felt about it. Like Peter, Eddie was usually as blank as a refrigerator door when it came to any serious situation such as this. Peter knew that Eddie took this as seriously as he had taken his lab work with Doctor Connors, perhaps even more so.

"Fantastic." Warren said. "Let's get this party started, then." He walked over to the computer monitor and keyboard set up near to the window. "Mr. Brock…would you please get a hold of some protective eyewear for our guests?"

"Sure thing, Doc." Eddie said, heading over to a nearby metal cabinet and opening the doors.

"Protective eyewear?" Gwen asked. "What kind of eye damage are we risking with this?"

"The pods generate a bright light during the process." Warren said.

"Why?" Peter asked.

"Because science, that's why." Warren answered dryly, waving this off. "Without them, even looking at the pods through your peripheral vision could damage your eyes. Hence, we take this precaution." Eddie returned to them, handing Peter and Gwen a pair of goggles similar to those that Doctor Warren was already wearing.

"Thanks, Eddie." Gwen said, taking hers with a smile and pulling out a clip to and drawing her hair up out from where it hung down to her shoulder, having a sort of bun style now as she slipped the goggles on over her head. Peter took his own, giving a nod to Eddie and a muttered "Thanks" before he slipped them on.

"Alright, everyone ready?" Warren, in the meantime, had pulled his own goggles up from around his eyes. "Alright, then," He added once he had seen that the three others in the room were properly attired, "I am running the program…now." He said as he typed in a line of code and pressed the return key. On the monitor, Peter saw the lines of code that Warren had typed out now covered by a small window that had popped up reading: '_PROCEDURE ONE-OH-ONE INITIATED_' and a progress bar starting to fill beneath that. "And here we go…"

Peter's eyes turned upward to the two pods in the adjoining room, which were now brightly illuminated from the inside. Even from the distance they were at, he could hear the sound of the mouse – "Willard", as Warren had called him – squeaking loudly as though in some distress.

"Is it alright?" Gwen asked.

"It's fine. The cloning process is harmless, it's probably just startled." Warren called over the loud humming that the pods were now producing. A quick glance to the monitor showed Peter that the progress bar had nearly filled. When it had done so, the words quickly changed to show '_PROCEDURE ONE-OH-ONE COMPLETE, INITIATING PROCEDURE ONE-OH-TWO_'. A moment later, '_PRODUCE ONE-OH-TWO INITIATED_' appeared with another progress bar to accompany it.

The mouse's squeaking had stopped by that point (Peter wondering if it was actually dead rather than still alive), and not long after the progress meter had begun to fill did it fill completely without further incident. Warren typed in another code and the machines stopped whirring loudly and the lights from the pods began to fade.

"Alright, lady and gentlemen. It is now safe to remove your goggles." Miles said as he return his to the place on his head where they had been when they'd all entered the lab, the others following suite thereafter."I'll head in and see if Willard has a new playmate. Keep our guests company, will you Mr. Brock?"

"If you insist, Doc." Eddie said, sighed melodramatically as though it were some great effort. Warren simply took his comment at face value and walked into the test area. Peter and Gwen just snickered a bit.

"So…what's the verdict, man?" Peter asked.

"About what? _Him_?" Eddie asked, gesturing to Warren. "Oh, he's alright. Never met somebody more focused on their work, believe you me. And I know from what little I've studied of it that most of what he's saying on this is sound."

"Most?" Gwen questioned with a raised brow.

"Well, I mean, c'mon guys." Eddie said, scratching the back of his neck. "Even if he doesn't find a pile of soup in that second pod, we still have a good decade or two before it will actually be able to _do_ anything. No offense to the Doc, but the bigwigs aren't exactly wrong when they say it isn't viable right now."

"Still, pretty sweet gig, huh?" Peter asked, nudging Eddie in the shoulder.

"Yeah, it pays my tuition, so what do I know?" Eddie laughed as he took the nudges good naturedly. Peter and Gwen were laughing along with him when they heard the wall paneling moving once more as Warren returned; his hands cupped and held out before him.

"Eddie! Eddie! It _worked_!" An enthused Doctor Warren spoke as he presented to them what he held in his hands: two white mice. Looking at them, Peter could not find a single thing different between the two of them. They scuttled around in Warren's hands, tripping and tumbling over each other as they ran around in circles.

"That's…that's amazing!" Eddie and Gwen both said at once, and Peter had to agree, staring wide-eyed at what he saw.

And then, true to form, his Spider-Sense went off.

'_What? Not now!'_

But his only answer came in the form of the roof above them being smashed in. A familiar, group of eight robotic legs descended to the ground. By this time, Warren and Eddie had dodged, and Peter had quickly pulled Gwen out of the way. The thing left burn marks across the floor as its newly attached head began to rotate.

"_Cross-species detected_"

'_Oh, crap…not again!_' Peter thought, immediately grabbing Gwen's hand and running for the door, seeing that Warren was already heading that way, still carrying his two mice cupped in his hands. Eddie, though…

Eddie had picked up tray of instruments off of a nearby table (scattering the instruments) and was trying to fight it off.

"Eddie!" Peter protested, but his oldest friend remained where he was. 'Menancingly' did Eddie wave the tray, feinting a few times in the creature's direction as though he meant to attack.

"It'll buy you some time, now go!" Eddie snapped back, his tone indicative that he wasn't going to take an argument about it. Knowing it was no use, Peter moved with Gwen and the Doctor out of the room as fast as their feet could carry them, heading out into the hall and further out of the school. Peter's Spider-Sense went off before he saw Eddie being thrown from the lab and the door and the wall they had just walked through being destroyed as the robot tore its way right through it with its bulk.

"Taxi!" Peter yelled, raising a hand and shaking it madly. When one of New York's yellow cabs came up, Peter quickly opened the rear passenger side door. "Get in, quick." He told Gwen, who was definitely not up to arguing. However, she did argue when Peter closed the door from the outside. "I have to go help Eddie, Gwen."

"Peter Parker, it's a _giant spider robot_! What exactly are you planning on doing?" Gwen exclaimed exasperated.

"I have to help Eddie, Gwen." Peter's reply came with a shrug. He looked to the driver. "Take her back home, the Villeroy Tower." The driver looked back to Gwen, who finally nodded reluctantly, then looked back to Peter.

"Peter, please be careful. Don't do anything stupid. Please." Gwen said as the rear window was rolled up.

"I won't." Peter said, knowing Gwen could read his lips through the glass. She pressed her hand to the glass and he did the same, his over hers for a brief moment before the taxi began to drive off. The peaceful moment was ruined as the robot burst its way through the ceiling. Peter looked to see Warren running out of the building with Eddie on his shoulder.

"Where's Miss Stacy?" Warren asked.

"I sent her back home." Peter said. "How's Eddie?"

"Couple of cuts and bruises, might have broken something." Warren said. "Won't know that until he wakes up…"

"Well, let's get him to the hospital and…I don't know, call a cop or something." Peter said, seeing the robot was now turning on them or, more specifically, _him_. "Move!" The two split, Warren heading off in one direction with Eddie over his shoulder as Peter and the robot headed in another.

'_Gotta outrun it…gotta outrun it…_' Peter thought as he sped down the concrete walkway, seeing several walkers along the paved footpath dodging and running in fear from the massive robot that now hovered in this sky above. Peter didn't need his Spider-Sense to know that the thin was gaining on him. '_Not …'_ ran rapid fire through his head as he attempted to think of some kind of way out of this situation. Suddenly, a thought occurred to him. '_Trees…when we went under the trees in the path, it seemed to keep it from finding us…_' He thought, running as fast as he could, his eyes looking around for a small park or literally any cluster of trees that he could find.

Sadly, a few blocks later, his search proved to be more than a little fruitless, and the buzzing within his head was getting more and more intense as the spider was now almost close enough to touch him. What he did find, however, was a narrow alley, which he quickly dove into. At the opening, the robot seemed to stop as though it didn't wish to damage any of the buildings around besides the lab it had already torn apart.

He took the brief reprieve to change into his costume, hidden carefully under his clothing once again. His mask taken from his pocket and put over his face, he was ready and leaped to the nearest wall, climbing up it. Seeing the robot still ready and waiting as it rose from where it had remained as he finally got to the roof of the nearest building.

"Guess you wanted to come back for seconds, huh, you rusty bucket of-" Peter's wise-crack was cut short when his Spider-Sense was triggered and he dodged to avoid a large grappling hook that had emerged from the automaton's head, reaching out to grab him. "Nice try, but you don't have a good handle on the situation." He quipped as the thing began to retract the line and hook up for another shot. "Oh, hold it right there!" He said as he shot a line that caught the line and he pulled with all his might, severing it at the point where the hook could be pulled over in his direction. The Webslinger did just that, taking the hook in his hand and leaping forward, toward the robot it had come from, aiming a strike that would (hopefully) carve right into his opponent's abdomen.

But his Spider-Sense going off again forced him to change his trajectory as he dodged a bullet that had been fired at him from behind. He turned in the air, landing on the rooftop on a side diagonal from his robotic foe to find a familiar face standing at the other corner, having crossed from the other building from the look of it. He was a tall, bald man in a black suit with a gray tie. His pale skin looked heavily scarred, and Peter knew just what had torn at the man's face.

"Ah…you again." Peter said as he took in the look of Dmitri Kravinoff. The older man looked at him murderously, holding a pistol in his hand.

"Yes, Spider-Man!" Dmitri hissed as he fired two more shots that Peter dodged with almost no effort, one careening away and the other hitting the robot that hovered behind the two of them dead in its head and seemingly having no effect whatsoever.

"I'm guessing that bucket of bolts belongs to you?" Peter asked. "Where'd you order from? _Think Geek_? _J!NX_?"

"A tool of my new employer." Dmitri retorted, not amused by Peter's quips. "A tool made just to deal with _you_, you pathetic little insect!"

"Spiders are arachnids, you moron!" Peter snapped back almost before Dmitri had been able to finish calling him an insect.

"Speak to my robot about that!" Dmitri snorted and Peter got the buzz again, dodging a hail of gunfire that had come from behind this time. He flipped back in time to see that a row of gunnery had rising up out of the "shoulders" of the robot and were now emptying several rounds in his direction. He flipped, realizing that the hook he had torn from the creature was still within his grasp. '_Hope I've got my physics right…_' He thought as he went over the calculations again and, whilst diving to the side, threw the thing right for the robot.

It moved in an upward arc as Peter dodged bullet spray after bullet spray sent out after him, eventually coming down and hitting the robot exactly where Peter had intended – the head. He heard the cracking and shattering of equipment as the hook hit its mark. '_Bingo!_' He thought, though his enthusiasm stopped when the robot didn't seem to be stopping in the least. The robot merely advanced forward, another spray of bullets issuing from the gunnery as it had apparently reloaded while Peter had attempted to pull a Captain Ahab on it.

"What do you think of my employers' pet, Spider-Man?" Dmitri called from the other rooftop, apparently having given up on his target practice.

"Oh, how nice!" Peter snorted as he leaped over to the other roof. "I can't wait until the price goes down, then maybe I can get one of my own." With a quick movement, he shot a webline for Dmitri's torso, pulling him over and in front of him, putting him between the robot and himself. "Okay. Talk quick." He snapped. "Who do you work for?"

"I'm not telling you a thing!" Dmitri sneered. "Go to hell!"

"We'll both be going in a minute." Peter said, hearing now the sound of the robot reloading its guns. "I don't think that thing's going to stop trying to kill me, even if you're in the way, don't you think?" He saw the man look worried to the massive spider in front of the two of them.

"Smythe!" Dmitri spat out. "His name is Smythe!" Peter processed the name, sure he had heard it somewhere before. For now, though, he was concerned with staying alive.

"Thanks, Voldemort." Peter said. "Now why don't you just hang around for a bit…" He said as he tossed the man to a nearby vent and secured him with webbing. "And I'll…" His Spider-Sense going off again informed him that, yes, yes, there was a giant spider robot about to open fire on him. "Tata!" He exclaimed as he leaped backwards off of the building, heading down as he could sense the thing still following him, and thankfully not firing a spray of bullets down upon unsuspecting people below.

'_If I can get it to the river, maybe I can drown it…_' He thought. The Hudson wasn't _that_ far off, he could manage it. '_Just got to convince it to keep following me, check…then I gotta find some way to actually maneuver it into the water…I need to think of better plans._' Of course, having no real alternative, Peter thought at least that the water would be a somewhat safer place for any explosions that might occur than out in the open air. And so, he swung himself at another building, using the momentum to go from a swing into a run against the wall, heading upward as fast as his feet could carry him. '_Roof…roof…roof…_' He reminded himself as he felt the robot dogging his heels, its propulsion letting it narrowly avoid the building it was now hovering up the side of in pursuit of him. Clearing the roof, Peter took a leap and spun around in the air, landing right on the robot's head.

"Giddy up!" Peter quipped as he saw the thing rotating its head, trying to get a visual on him and once it had done so trying to shake him off. "Okay…now I just need to…" He said before he suddenly realized a strange, purple gas had started to waft through the air. "What the-?" '_It can't be a weapon from this…my Spider-Sense would be going crazy!_' He thought as he suddenly found the robot beneath him to have disappeared, and the smoke billow around him, blinding his vision and soon he realized that the city had disappeared as well.

"Okay, who's pulling out the carnival tricks?"

"Carnival tricks? Ha! You offend me, young man."

"What the…who are you?" Peter exclaimed, hearing the voice of a woman. He looked around, seeing no one in the darkened room he now found himself in. His Spider-Sense was giving him nothing. He wasn't in danger, at least not yet.

"More to the point, young man. Who. Are. You? Peter Benjamin Parker." The woman's voice echoed through what Peter seemed to think was this endless void.

"What? I'm not Peter Parker." Peter insisted, trying to keep his shock from showing.

"_You_ are a terrible liar!" He finally picked out the woman's voice as coming from behind him and he turned to see something he did not in the least believe. It was a woman, some elderly woman dressed in a black robe with a white fabric design that resembled a spider emblazoned upon it. Over her eyes was what looked like a strap of leather, covering them from view. White hair cascaded from the top of her head to just above her shoulder. And those were probably the least unusual things about her.

He noticed the chair she sat upon, her gnarled hands grasping the armrests as she sat back against what looked to be a massive spider web.

"…okay, I'll bite. Does Alice Cooper know you've been stealing his set pieces?" Peter asked.

"Sarcastic quips are unbecoming of you." The woman said dryly.

"How do you know who I am?" Peter asked.

"I know much more about you than just who you are, Peter Parker…" The woman said. "I know about the power you have been granted, and what you use it to do. I know about your dear Aunt May, your Uncle Ben, Gwen Stacy, Eddie Brock, Harry Osborn…"

"Alright, alright, fine!" Peter snapped. "Enough of the psychic crap! That doesn't answer my question!"

"I am Madame Web." The woman said. "And I will forgive your shortness with me, Mr. Parker. We have quite a lot to talk about…" Seeing the small smile on the woman's face made Peter's hair stand on end. He had a feeling he was in just a little over his head.

**A/N: …yeah, so pretty obvious to tell I'm a fan of the 90s Spidey animated series, right?**

**Anyway, more to come soon, I hope.**

**And please keep a look out (for those who are reading my Avengers fic(s) as well, for the first Captain America solo fic "Red Winter" and the Thor fic "Revenge of the Enchantress", the first chapters of which will be coming up very soon. TTFN!**


	3. In Which Lines Are Cast

**A/N: Glad to see everyone enjoying the story. I hope this continues to be the case as we progress. Now, on with the madness!**

**Chapter Three**  
In Which Lines Are Cast

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'IT'S GONE'?!"

Alastair jumped in fear at Norman Osborn's sudden thunderous, raged-filled outburst.

"I…I don't know, Mr. Osborn." Alastair said, truly dumbfounded as he stared in complete disbelief at the computer screen. "One minute, I'm reading the Spider Slayer as working and all systems go, then it just…vanished."

"Vanished?" Norman scowled, looking to the screen, reading the HUD and, too, finding no other conclusion. "Are you telling me that you sent out a thirteen point nine _million_ _dollar_ robot and now it's just _vanished_ into _THIN AIR_?!"

"E-Essentially, yes…" Alastair swallowed, hand shaking a bit as he watched Norman over his shoulder, scowling at the monitors even now.

"…well, there seems to have been no report of it making a dent in the city." Norman said, his hands sliding into the pockets of his suit pants. "Get back to work, Alastair." Hearing him turn to leave, Alastair allowed himself a sigh of relief as he relaxed, but was suddenly jerked out of it when Norman's hand slammed down on the desk before him, he felt Norman's lips dangerously close to his ear as he whispered. "Do it right this time, Alastair…or I _promise_ that I will make _you_ disappear…" It was a long moment later before he realized that Norman had left the room.

* * *

'_Good going, Webhead…you walked right into a trap._' Peter thought.

"You are wrong, Mr. Parker…as _usual_…" The woman who called herself Madame Web spoke. It struck Peter as strange that the woman seemed blind, yet was following his movements perfectly as though she could plainly see him.

"How do you know who I am?" Peter asked. "And how do you know so much about me? I want some answers!"

"You will get them." Madame Web said. Peter could see the strange, purple smoke that had brought him to this strange place seeming to writhe through the air in front of the woman who had apparently brought him here, forming into what looked to be a small table and another chair that was far simpler than the elaborate contraption that Web sat in. "Now, sit down." She said, gesturing to the chair.

"I'll stand, thanks." Peter said, still skeptical and worried for any attack or trap he might fall right into. He watched as a deck of cards appeared in Madame Web's hand, she shuffled the deck, and then took three cards from the deck, setting them face down on the tabletop.

"It is usually a good idea to have a seat," The woman said as she placed the cards on the table, "when your whole world is about to be turned upside down…" Peter blinked, and suddenly felt himself beginning to fall.

"Whoa!" Peter exclaimed as he realized he was coming towards the ceiling at great speed. He couldn't react fast enough before…he found himself on his feet again, standing before Madame Web, who seemed to "look" at him almost disapprovingly.

"Are you quite finished?" She asked him.

"Uh…chairs. I was about to say, love chairs." Peter muttered as he took the seat across from Web, looking down at the three cards upon the table. The backs were red, designed with ornate symbols that he didn't recognize except for the large spider web that seemed to crisscross each card.

"You are about to embark on a period of training, for a mission I will soon require of you." Web began to explain.

"Well, hey, I just met you and this is crazy," Peter quipped, "but I've had enough of the Twilight Zone for one night, so…no thanks." He started to rise again, but soon found what appeared to be his own webbing wrapped around his wrists, pulling him back to the chair.

"I'm afraid this is one situation you cannot crawl away from." Madame Web intoned.

"What do you need me for?" Peter asked, gesturing to the web wraps that kept him…well, unwraps. "You obviously have powers of your own."

"Powers are nothing!" Web shook her head, waving her hand as the leftmost card rose, flipping over to reveal a harlequin jester dancing about merrily – his costume in red and blue much like his own – and the card flew towards him. "This is your card."

"Uh…'the Fool'?" Peter asked, reading the inscription at the bottom of the card beneath the jester's hopping feet.

"It symbolizes your first step down a long road." Web explained. "You are young, you are fresh, untouched as yet by what is to come…"

"What does _that_ mean?" Peter asked.

"You are at the beginning." Web cut him off from speaking further. She waved her hand again, the card flipped over to reveal a card dubbed "The High Priestess" by the writing at the bottom. It was a woman who wore a white robe and a black cape over it, as well as a white hat that seemed to be holding a large, red orb of some kind within it. She sat back against what looked like spider webs.

"Let me guess…this is _your_ card?" Peter asked.

"Yes." Web said. "I offer you enlightenment, encouragement, insight so that you may better stand against what is to come."

"Uh huh…so…what? This is Dagobah and _you're_ my Yoda?" Peter asked.

"Ah, but the third card is to be revealed…" Web said, waving her hand once more, as the third card flipped over to be seen. Peter glanced at it, blinking a few times to make sure he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing.

"The Hanged Man", an upside down version of himself. One half of him was in costume, the other out of costume as he appeared to be strung up upside down by his own webbing.

"Wow…this just…so encouraging, really." Peter said, going into full on sarcasm mode.

"It is a representation of what is to come soonest of all." Web told him. "You must know that you are your greatest ally…and you are your greatest enemy."

"What does that even mean?!" Peter exclaimed, but quickly realized the smoke had returned, and was once more obscuring his vision. For a moment, he could see nothing but the purple smoke. Soon, he found himself on the roof of the building where he'd battled that robot. The spot where he'd webbed up Dmitri was now unoccupied, the webbing having dissolved. Peter quickly reached into his pocket, checking his phone. Three missed calls from Aunt May, three from Gwen, and it looked like it had been about two hours since he left the lab.

'_Crap…_' He thought as he quickly began to redial Aunt May.

* * *

"Peter Benjamin Parker!"

Peter just _knew_ he was in trouble when he heard that voice, walking into the hospital where Eddie had been brought to. May Parker stood by the door to Eddie's room, arms crossed over her chest and a disapproving scowl on his face.

"Look, Aunt May, I-"

"I don't want to hear it!" May snapped, walking over to him. "Getting that giant spider to run after you! You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"What?" Peter blinked, not expecting May to have been upset about that so much as him being late for about the fiftieth time to something.

"You could have gotten yourself killed!" May repeated herself. "And with Eddie put up for a bit, I'd hate to think what I'd do if both my boys were out for the count. Don't you _ever_ do that to me again!"

"I'm sorry, Aunt May, honest I am…" Peter said, tensing a bit. "Is…is Eddie okay?"

"Yes, Eddie's fine." May said, waving this off. "He just got a nasty bump on the head. He's a big boy, he'll live."

"Oh, okay, good." Peter said, then issuing an "Oww!" as May whacked him on the arm.

"Don't ever do that again! Do you understand me?" His Aunt gave him a look and Peter simply nodded his affirmation. With that, May's features seemed to soften a bit and she embraced her nephew. "I'm glad that you're okay, Peter. I was so afraid." She told him.

"Don't be afraid, Aunt May." Peter said. '_Liar…_' He thought, chiding himself once again. Madame Web had said he was a terrible liar, but apparently he wasn't that bad. Aunt May didn't seem to suspect a thing about his double life as Spider-Man, and that's just the way it had to stay. He'd hate to think of what would happen if May found out about all of that.

"Don't be afraid." He said again, embracing his Aunt.

* * *

A few days later, Peter found himself actually quite afraid from where he sat. He glanced over at the door. Printed on the glass in large, black letters, he read:

**JOHN JONAH JAMESON  
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF**

'_I wonder if his ego is as big as those letters…_' Peter thought as he sat in one of the chairs outside the office, tapping his hands against his knees. He had dressed up well enough for the occasion. It was a nice button down shirt and a tie and some slacks, nothing horrendously fancy, but very business oriented, so he supposed that that worked well enough.

"Peter Parker?" Peter heard the voice of Joseph Robertson as the door to Mr. Jameson's office was opened. He immediately got up, the manila folder where he had his résumé and his best photographs was in his hand.

"Yes, Mr. Robertson?" Peter asked.

"He's ready for you." Joseph said, and Peter gave him a quick nod as the man opened the door.

"Thank you." He said, as he stepped inside quickly. Mr. Robertson had coached him on this a bit, having done the same for Eddie when he had applied here, as Peter understood it. He stepped in and for the first time got a look at J. Jonah Jameson.

It literally took Peter all of his self-control to not either flee in fear or burst out in laughter, he wasn't sure which emotion was taking over more. The man at the desk looked like an aged Charlie Chapin with his ridiculous mustache, the cigar seeming to rest against his lip as he sat there with a look of bored disinterest. From grayed hair that had once been just a rich shade of black rested on the top of his head in a flat top. A pair of black eyes looked back at him from across the desk.

Everything about the man (wearing what looked to be a blue button down with a sleeveless sweater over it, at least that's what Peter thought it was) seemed rather hilarious and somehow exaggerated in some strange way, except for those eyes. There was something about that man's eyes that Peter didn't like. He couldn't place it, but they just seemed to be probing. Whoever the man was looking at it, it was as if Jameson were trying to discern everything about a person whether they liked it or not.

And, being someone who didn't want to much to be found out about him, Peter found that just plain unnerving.

"You gonna sit down or are you gonna stand there all day with that dumb look on your face?" Jameson asked as he pulled the cigar from his mouth, jamming it into the ashtray at his desk. He must have smoke a lot, the whole place smell way too heavily of cigar smoke for Peter's taste.

"Sorry…Mr. Jameson." Peter said as he quickly moved to take a seat across from the man's desk.

"You're Parker, right?" Jameson asked as he leaned over on his desk, his hands threading together as he rested his arms on the desk.

"Yes sir." Peter said, nodding as he carefully lifted his portfolio, presenting it to the man. "I brought these…a couple of-"

"Here, let me see." Jameson said, to Peter's surprise quickly snatching away the folder and thumbing through. There were a few shots he had taken of himself taking down some crooks as Spider-Man. "Garbage…garbage…garbage…" Peter felt more and more dejected the more Jameson spoke, thumbing through the photos. "Nice shot of a man falling onto a hydrant…" '_Oh, crud, I didn't mean to put that one in there!_' Peter chided himself. "Garbage…crap…"

"Mr. Jameson…those are some of my-"

"Tell you what, kid. I'll do you a favor." Jameson. "Three hundred for all of them, standard freelance fee." Peter blinked.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that. Maybe I can get the boys down in the editing department to do something with it." Jameson said.

"Now hold on, JJ!" Joseph said. "You said we were gonna need a new photographer."

"Nothing doing, Robbie." Jameson shook his head. "You said yourself, the kid's only seventeen."

"I could do it." Peter insisted.

"Nope, come back in a year, kid. 'Til then, freelance. Bring me more photos, you get more scratch. Comprende?"

"Umm…yes, sir." Peter said, thoroughly confused, but agreeing. He watched as Jameson reached over and pressed a button on his phone.

"Miss Brant, get me an invoice for Mr. Parker, stat!" He snapped, then removed his finger before he could get an answer. Before another second had passed, Jameson was looking at the photos again. "What do you think, Robbie? Front page?" He asked. "'_Spider-Man foils Robbery, Takes Stolen Funds!'_? I think that has a nice ring to it…"

"Stolen funds?" Peter asked, raising a brow. "He was stopping those crooks trying to rob the bank."

"Yeah, kid, and you tell me how much of that got onto his sticky fingers…" Jameson said, giving Peter a look that just _screamed_ that he thought he was being naïve.

"None!" Peter protested.

"And how do _you_ know?" Jameson asked, leaning more over the desk at him. '_Damn it, Peter, not again…_' He thought as he tried to come up with a defense or an explanation of some kind.

"He just…doesn't seem the type to do that…" Peter said, looking away, trying to give the impression that he'd just blurted out as a young, idealist rather than someone who knew too much for his own good.

"Well, let me tell ya, kid, _everybody_ doesn't seem the type to do that until they do." Jameson said. "Anyway, this interview is over. Scram!" With that, Peter gave a half-glance to Mr. Robertson, who mouthed '_Wait back at the desk._' Peter nodded and gathered up his things, leaving the office as quickly as he could. He returned to the chair he had been sitting in before, and he waited. He could hear Jonah and Joseph having a long, drawn out conversation, though he couldn't make out too much of it.

After close to twenty minutes, Joseph came out, closing the door behind him. Peter looked to him, and was surprised to find the man holding him out a long slip of paper to him. His eyes lit up when he realized what it was.

"Consider it your first paycheck, Mr. Parker." Joseph said, giving Peter a smile as the young man took it.

"I…thank you, Mr. Robertson. Thank you so much." Peter said, unable to keep from smiling as he held the first paycheck he'd ever earned in his life.

"Sure thing, Mr. Parker." Joseph said, chuckling. "You keep bringing in photos and Ben or I will try to get you something whenever we get the chance. That's about the best I could do with JJ." He added, laughing.

"I'm really grateful, thanks again." Peter said, carefully folding the check and putting it into his pocket without crinkling it.

"Sure thing." Joseph said, nodding. "We got your numbers down, so we'll contact you if we get anything for you. Until then, just…get those photos in of Spider-Man. I'm sure that'll make Jonah…more tolerable, at least."

"What do you think of him, Mr. Robertson?" Peter asked.

"Who? JJ?" Joseph asked, then realized what Peter meant. "Oh, Spider-Man? Well, I don't believe even half of what gets put in the paper. Most of it is just sensationalist nonsense that Jonah puts in to sell the paper." He sighed. "I don't know. I think he's out there trying to do the right thing. We all saw that with the lockdown at Oscorp or those fights he had with that giant lizard thing. I think he's a hero." Peter smiled.

"Well, thanks again, Mr. Robertson." He stood before turning and walking to the door.

"Oh, Peter, one more thing!"

"Yes, sir?"

"Be careful out there." The sound of the man's voice made Peter stop, his hand on the doorknob. He sounded…concerned. Peter turned back. "Spider-Man might be a good guy, but the guys he goes up against definitely aren't. If you're really bent on going out and getting shots of him, just…be careful, alright? You never know what you might run into out there."

'_You don't even know the half of it, Mr. R_.' Peter thought, having certainly not forgotten the giant spider robots and the mysterious woman who had kidnapped him a few days ago.

"Thanks for the heads up." Peter said cheerfully as he opened the door and stepped out of the offices of the Daily Bugle.

* * *

"Seriously, how many of these demonstrations do we get to go to?"

"Don't question a good thing, Pete." Gwen smiled sweetly as the two of them walked along the city street.

"I guess not, it just seems oddly convenient." Peter shrugged.

"Well, you have a press pass from the Bugle, and congrats, by the way," Gwen smiled, nudging his shoulder, "and Harry had a plus one and Liz couldn't go, so…yeah."

"Yeah, still, though." Peter said, chuckling as he took the nudge. "Just seems convenient…"

"Don't rock the boat, Pete." Gwen said, pointing ahead. "Look, c'mon, there's Harry now." Peter followed her finger to see the familiar face of Harry Osborn standing by the front door of the University's robotics laboratory.

"Hey, you two!" Harry said, grinning and pointing the two of them out as he walked over to the greet them. "Thanks for coming along."

"Any time, Harry." Gwen said, smiling. "Peter and I are just big nuts for science, you know." She added.

"Oh, yeah." Harry said. "Definitely do, definitely do. I figured this would be just up you guys' alley."

"Oh, definitely." Peter nodded his agreement with what both of them were saying. "Umm…who's this guy we're going to see?"

"Spencer Smythe." Harry said. "Dad says he's supposed to be the big brain in robotics at Oscorp."

'_Smythe?'_ Peter thought, tensing suddenly as heard that name. Dmitri had said it on the rooftop. This couldn't be the same guy who was trying to take out Spider-Man…could it?

"Sounds interesting." Gwen said.

"Maybe for you guys." Harry laughed. "If my Dad wasn't making me come here, I wouldn't be here at all."

"Not a big fan of these, I guess?" Gwen asked. Her and Harry's discussion faded out as Peter continued to think things over. Those robots had found him before, not once but twice. If he headed into that place, would he be walking right into a trap?

"Earth to Peter!"

"Huh?!" Peter was shook from his thoughts by Harry's voice.

"Dude, c'mon! We gotta go." Harry said.

"Uh, yeah." Peter said, nodding as he refocused his attention once more. '_If I leave now, it might look suspicious._' He thought, knowing that he had the webshooters on and his suit safely hidden away beneath his layers of clothing. Hopefully he wouldn't have to put either of them to use today. He quickly moved to follow Gwen and Harry into the building.

"Are you alright?" Gwen asked, making a half turn to her boyfriend, a clear look of concern on her face.

"Yeah, of course I am." Peter said, nodding.

"You just seem…I don't know, distracted, almost." Gwen said, her brow furrowed a bit as she looked at him.

"Miss Stacy, with you here, how could I _possibly_ be _distracted_?" Peter asked, grinning and giving his girlfriend a roguish wink, to which Gwen just giggled a bit.

"Nice try, Pete," Gwen smirked, giggling as she nudged his shoulder once again, leaning over to give him a quick peck on the cheek.

"Are you two done?" Harry asked. "I'm drowning in the sickeningly adorable."

"Way to spoil the moment, Harry." Gwen teased, raising a brow at him as she slipped her hand into Peter's, intertwining their fingers. "C'mon, let's go before Harry decorates the floor."

Peter laughed, walking along with the two of them toward the nearest lab where they saw several people gathering within.

"Say, any news on what happened to Doctor Warren?" Peter asked.

"They moved him to a new lab after the attack, I think." Gwen said. "But his research has been discontinued for the time being, last I heard."

"I tried talking to Eddie about it some, but he just kept changing the subject." Peter said.

"Uh…yeah." Gwen said, looking glum. "He didn't tell you? He…well, the university heads let him go."

"What?" Peter asked, surprised. "I didn't even…"

"He didn't want to talk about it." Gwen said. "I don't think he's even told May. It was by complete accident that I even found out. I saw the letter on his bedside table. He was hiding it under his meal tray."

"Oh…" Peter said, frowning. '_Why wouldn't Eddie have told me?_' He wondered. It wasn't like Eddie to keep secrets, not about things like this.

"This way." Harry said as they stepped into the main lab, where a large operational theatre had been repurposed to showcase whatever Spencer Smythe was going to present here today. Harry lead the way as the three of them moved up to the front row of some metal chairs that had been set up, taking their seats at the far right of the gathering group. Peter saw marked on the chairs "Harry Osborn", "Mr. Osborn's Plus One", and "Daily Bugle Photographer" all lined up.

"So that's why I'm not sitting with the rest of the Press?" Peter asked, grinning to Harry.

"What's the point of being friends with an Osborn if you don't get the perks?" Harry asked, shrugging and grinning right back, sitting down in his seat as did the other two.

"Right, right." Peter laughed this off, taking his seat as well.

"Harry Osborn!"

"Oh, Mother of God." Peter heard Harry mutter under his breath as a young woman seemingly within their age bracket walked over. Peter could have just sworn that he'd seen her somewhere before, but he couldn't place it. She was just a bit too old to be one of their classmates, and was dressed far too well for this occasion.

"Hello, Felicia…" Harry muttered, averting his gaze from the young blonde woman who had just approached the trio as he stood to face her. Peter had to admit, she was a bit of a looker. Of course, she had nothing on Gwen, even as dolled up as she was.

"I'm surprised you aren't joining me and my mother in the balcony." Felicia said, arms crossed over her chest. "Very rude of your Osborns, both of you."

"Well, my Dad's helping with the presentation, and I-" Harry started.

"Oh, don't you _dare_ come up with some half-baked excuse, young Mister Osborn!" Felicia replied indignantly. Peter didn't know whether to laugh or be shocked by the woman's flippant, almost melodramatic mode of speech, even more so by how Felicia seemed to be taking herself in a completely serious manner. He could have just _sworn_ he heard Gwen hiding a laugh in a cough.

"I was just seeing to my good friends, here, Felicia." Harry said, gesturing to Peter and Gwen, "Uh…Felicia Hardy, these are Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy, two friends of mine from Midtown." Peter rose to his feet, giving Felicia a respectful nod. Gwen, too, rose.

"Nice to meet you, Miss-" Gwen started.

"Yes, yes, very nice." Felicia said, waving them off. "I do wish we could have met under better circumstances, but Harry will be Harry, won't he?" She asked. Then, without waiting for a reply, Felicia grabbed Harry's hand. "Come along now, Harry, my mother is waiting…" She said. Harry gave a look back to Peter and Gwen as he was almost pulled along, both of them shrugging rather helplessly, both trying to stifle a great laughter.

"I think Harry's got himself a girlfriend." Gwen giggled, sinking back into her seat.

"Sure looks like it." Peter said, chuckling as he joined her in his own seat. Of course, now he realized where he had seen her before. Felicia Hardy, daughter of Anastasia Hardy. The Hardy Foundation was almost as big a contributor to the scientific community as Oscorp was, Peter knew all too well. Felicia was quite often seen at her mother's side in the Foundation's press conferences and at photo ops, though Peter had the feeling from their brief encounter that that was all Felicia was put to use for in the workings of the Foundation.

Though she hadn't really struck him as much of a people person, either.

"Hey, I think they're starting." Gwen leaned over, whispering to him as he saw Norman Osborn being wheeled up in his wheelchair to the stage by someone he didn't recognize, though he was a man far, far younger than Norman. And to the side of the man pushing Osborn's chair was a much older man than even Osborn. Peter _did_ recognize Spencer Smythe when he saw him. He saw Norman being led over to a podium, where he seemed to struggle to rise for a moment (helped by the younger man), before he grasped the podium and rose to a stable position.

"Hello, everyone!" Norman said cheerfully, giving a big smile to the crowd. Peter wondered if anyone else's blood was running cold at the moment. "Oscorp Board Members, Hardy Foundation, esteemed members of the press, we are here today to celebrate a leap forward in the field of robotics. Spearheaded by our very own Doctor Spencer Smythe, it…well, I think it's best if _he_ tell you. And so, without further ado, here's the man of the hour himself – Spencer Smythe!"

A round of applause broke out as Norman returned to his chair, the younger man assisting him back into a seated position. It was then that Spencer took the podium.

"Thank you, Mr. Osborn." Spencer said, speaking into the microphone directly before him just as Norman had a moment ago. "Hello everyone! I want to thank you all for coming to see this demonstration of our latest development in drone robotic technology. Now, I _know_ what you're all thinking, but don't worry…this _isn't_ the Stark Expo…" That got a few chuckles from around the room as Spencer reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a remote, pressing a button. "I give to you, esteemed colleagues and members of the press, the Smythe Zero Zero One."

The curtain behind him rose to reveal something that made Peter's eyes go wide – a familiar, spider-like robot. Of course, this one was far more minimalistic in design than the two he had battled before. The design of the robot was not unnoticed by some of the gathered crowd.

"Please, everyone! Please!" Spencer spoke over the microphone. "I am aware of the recent...incidents that have occurred within the city. Please be assured - as our press releases have _also_ stated – that they are due to errors in programming that _have_ been corrected, and we have no intention of-"

"_Cross species detected!_" A computerized voice came from the drone behind Spencer, which sprang into life almost immediately.

'_Son of a…mother Hubbard!_' Peter snapped, his Spider-Sense going haywire, realizing the thing was moving towards the crowd. He reached for Gwen's hand to pull her up and get her out of there, but she had already risen and was, in fact, pulling him away. The crowd dispersed as the drone turned on them, Peter able to hear the thing's guns turning on them.

"How exactly was he _planning_ on explaining _that_?!" Peter muttered, seeing the turrets rising from the robot's back. He heard the familiar hum of the mechanics as it warmed up, preparing to fire. "Gwen, duck!" He called as he pulled the pair of them to the ground, a hail of bullets whizzing through the air over their heads.

"What the hell is going on?" Gwen shouted over the firestorm. Peter didn't want to look up to see who just might have been hit.

"Guess Smythe shouldn't have taken the wheels off this early!" Peter called back. He waited until the latest flurry stopped before getting quickly to his feet, scooping Gwen up and heading for the doors as fast as his feet could carry them. He heard (and, more to the point, his Spider-Sense still going off) the weapons reloading. Ducking through the doorway, he heard the thing on approach, setting Gwen back on her feet. "Go on, go!" Peter insisted. "I need to make sure Harry's alright."

"Peter, you can't go back in there!" Gwen insisted, her eyes wide as she still shook from the shock of it all.

"I'm sorry, Gwen." Peter said, heading back into the surgical theater. He took a quick look around. The robot had now gone into the rows of now empty chairs, knocking them down as it scrambled towards him, apparently having picked up on his less than human qualities. He quickly ducked behind a pillar well out of sight of both the door behind him and any prying eyes that might have been in the room. A few moments later, the Amazing Spider-Man leaped out from cover, a webline bringing him around to on the balcony above. There, he saw huddled and frightened, the forms of Harry Osborn, Felicia, and Anastasia Hardy.

"Spider-Man!" Harry gave a shocked gasp.

"Are you three alright?" Peter asked.

"Get away from us, you dreg!" Anastasia waved him off, attempting a glare even as she seemed frightened of him. '_She's more scared of me than the robot._' Peter reflected.

"You guys get out of here, I'll deal with few circuits short of a motherboard down there." Peter said, leaping back off the balcony, landing in front of the spider. "Hey! Amiga for brains!" He snapped at it, apparently having in no way lost its attention. '_I suppose that's what we're looking for…_' Peter thought as he saw Harry leading the two Hardys away.

"_Cross-species detected, beginning capture measures…_" It chimed as Peter dodged a shot from its grappling hook. He dodged quick, but not quick enough to get a sharp cut across his shoulder, though he managed to avoid the worst of it.

"Nice try!" Peter said, shooting a webline and grabbing the hook, webbing up the pointy ends into a useless ball. "But your big brother didn't have a good _handle_ on me, either!" He quipped as he went to pull the hook out. The familiar buzz of his Spider-Sense, however, told him to release it and he did so, watching as the hook suddenly had electricity arcing around it, burning through the web prison he'd made surrounding it.

"Stop this immediately!" Peter turned to see Spencer Smythe standing behind them, holding the remote he'd used to reveal the machine in his hand. "Stop this immediately and return to sleep mode! Right away!" To Peter's great surprise, the robot stopped its spidercidal efforts and climbed back towards the stage, bunkering down on the platform and standing still. "I do apologize for this, Spider-Man." Spencer said, turning to the younger man who had jumped to the nearest pillar and was now sticking to it, looki down at the man.

"Oh, no trouble, really." Peter said. "I occasionally just _crave_ the occasional giant robot fight to keep me on my toes. I've been considering a summer home in Japan-"

"I don't know _why_ my device was sent to attack you, exactly." Spencer said. "But I am most certainly going to find out."

"Well, good to know, definitely, because-" Peter said, but was suddenly cut off by his Spider-Sense as he dodged a hail of bullets that suddenly burst from the robot's back, its reloading having completed. Flipping back around, he heard a sickening thwack of something metal rapidly going through flesh, and he knew that the robot had once more deployed its grappling hook.

But the target hadn't been him.

"NO!" Peter exclaimed as he watched the elderly form of Spencer Smythe spastically jerking around on the hook that had rammed its way right through his lower abdomen. The old man looked to Peter, unable to work out any words before he fell back, the hook being retracted from his body and nudging him backwards into the fall.

"Spider-Man!"

Peter saw the younger man from earlier who had been pushing Spencer's chair rush forward from the stage, looking mortified.

"I didn't-!" Peter started to protest, holding his hands up in a gesture of surrender. From the horrified, angered face of the man, however, he was having none of it.

"You…_murdered_ my father!" The man shook, his fist clenched as his entire body seemed to shake.

"I didn't murd-"

"Spider Slayer!" The man Peter now realized was Alastair Smythe spoke. "Exterminate the cross species specimen!" '_Oh, crap._' Peter thought as the spider once more turned on him, firing another burst that Peter dodged thanks to his near-precognition. What he did not consider, however, was just how much of a beating that the pillar had taken from the constant fire, which was apparently considerable seeing as the support began to fall, the beam falling rapidly and landing right on Smythe, who for all his genius intellect couldn't seem to simply side step the thing.

'_Under different circumstances, I'd totally have to bust his chops over this…_' Peter thought. Still, with a dead man on the floor, he felt no need to snark. He moved quickly over to the fallen pillar, effortlessly moving it and casting it aside.

"Are you alright?" Peter asked, reaching his hand to Alastair, who laid in a heap against the floor.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Alastair snarled, waving his arms in some manner that should have seemed menacing, but seemed far too pathetic. Peter could tell from the way Alastair flailed against the ground that his legs were damaged, if not broken entirely. "SPIDER SLAYER! KILL-!"

"Enough!" Norman Osborn's voice echoed through the room. The man himself standing, holding the remote that Spencer had been holding only moments before. "Spider-Man, get out of this place. Now." He said, a menacing glare boring into him. '_He sent the Slayer after Smythe…but why?_' Peter thought blankly as he shot off a webline and got himself out of that place.

* * *

"Alastair…Alastair…"

The young man was barely able to get over, the pain in his legs crippling him to no end. But the plea of his father could not and would not go unheeded.

"F-Father…"

"Alastair…l-listen…"

"Don't talk, Father…" Alastair gritted his teeth against the pain, seeing his fallen father sprawled against the ground, his blood rushing from him.

"Alastair…p-please…" Spencer spurted, blood coming from his mouth, joining the trails that were coming from the gaping wound in his chest. "L-listen. Don't trust…N-Norman." Alastair just stared at him, confused. Norman Osborn? That couldn't _possibly_ be what his father meant, could it? "P-Please, Alastair. Don't trust Norman…"

"I…" Alastair started to make his reply, but he could find no words. It was a long moment before he realized that the man on the floor before him was dead.

* * *

"I have it." Norman Osborn said as he dropped the sample into a tube with a pair of tweezers, sealing it with a cork. His cell phone was pressed against his ear and his shoulder as he put the sample into his pocket. "Yes, it will be ready. Is the laboratory to your liking?" Hearing the answer, a smile curved onto his lips and he removed the gloves from his hands. "Fantastic. I will be there within the hour." He hung up, sliding the phone into his other pocket. His eye caught young Alastair, his legs broken, being put into a stretcher. And, then, of course, the body of his former colleague.

'_Such a waste…_' Norman thought.

"_Nooooooorman!_"

Norman turned, looking around for the source of the voice. It was strangely familiar. He just _knew_ he had heard it before.

"_Noooooooorman! Why are you ignoring me?_"

He blinked, shaking his head as the voice seemed to fade away. Perhaps he had just imagined it after all. Nevertheless, he decided to give it no more thought.

* * *

**A/N: Good grief, that chapter ended up being waaaay longer than I intended. Even with edits. Still, I like how it turned out. So, lots of plot lines cast out here (see what I did there? With the title of the chapter? …I'll go sit in the corner now). Will there be payoffs? Will the _Daily Bugle_ be getting more feature time? Am I setting up characters for some Whedon-esque slaying on down the road? You'll have to keep reading to find out. Stay tuned, True Believers!**


	4. The Ultimate Spider Slayer

**Chapter Four**  
The Ultimate Spider Slayer

Confined to a wheelchair, his legs crippled but his mind even more feverishly at work than ever before - the transistors, cables, diodes, and other machinery being poured into _this_ his magnum opus, laid out before him on this table as he puts all his skill into it.

"Alastair, I-"

"No, Mr. Osborn." Alastair Smythe said as he wheeled himself over, continuing his work on the latest of his creations.

"Alastair, you haven't slept since-"

"_No_, Mr. Osborn…" Alastair repeated himself, perhaps a bit too forcefully. He saw Norman's hand slam against the steel body of the robot taking form before him.

"Remember your place." He could hear the rage unbridled in Norman's voice. "Do not push me, Smythe. Do you understand?"

"Oh, I understand." Alastair wheeled around, turning to look up at his current employer. "And I am bringing my best work into _this_."

"So you weren't before?" Norman asked, shooting an accusatory look his way.

"_You_ were the one to hire me, Mr. Osborn." Alastair said. "Ask me for weeks now to work behind my father's back to recreate his machines with the sole purpose of destroying Spider-Man."

"That is correct." Norman said.

"No success is ever gained without trial and error." Alastair said. "The previous encounters with Spider-Man have given me all the data I need to bring together the Ultimate Spider Slayer."

"A bit pretentious, don't you think?"

"Hardly," Alastair said, "it will definitely live up to the name once I am finished."

"I hope so, Alastair." Norman said. "This will be your last attempt…I will not permit another failure."

"This will not fail…" Alastair said, turning back to his work. "You will see…Mr. Osborn." He didn't wait for Norman to leave before he continued his work. "You will see…"

* * *

Peter knocked on the door to Eddie's room.

"Come in." He heard Eddie's voice within, and stepped in to see his oldest friend propped up in bed, eating from a tray containing a dried out looking ham sandwich, some kind of soup in a cup, and some…raisins? From the look of the things, Peter sure _hoped_ they were raisins. "Hey, Pete. How's it going?"

"Oh, good, man. Good." Peter said, walking in. "I came to check up on you."

"I'm fine." Eddie said, laughing as though he really was, and wasn't at all put up in a hospital bed as he was. "Seriously, you worry about as much as Mrs. Parker does."

"Aunt May means well," Peter said, sitting down at the chair nearest the bed. "You know she thinks the world of you, Eddie. She thinks of you like she does me, one of her own."

"Yeah, I know, I know." Eddie said. "And I owe her a lot, too." Peter supposed that was true, though Aunt May would've have told Eddie to think nothing of it had she been here, and often had told him to do just that. May Parker was the kindest, most generous individuals that Peter knew. She had seen to it that Eddie was taken care of up until he had reached adulthood, especially after what had happened to his mother and father. And even now, she treated him like one of her own.

"Oh, dude, I brought your CDs from your place." Peter said, picking up the box of CDs he'd gotten from Eddie's desk.

"Hey, thanks, man." Eddie said, smiling as he took the box when Peter offered it.

"Seriously, though. Metallica?" Peter asked, raising a brow at his friend.

"Best band in the world. Period." Eddie replied. And that was _always_ his reply when he was asked about it. "Besides, it was the only think May would let me listen to, since the rest of it was just that 'Crazy Devil Music'." He said, laughing. Peter had to laugh, as well. Eddie was into heavy metal, Metallica just being the tip of the iceberg. Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and there were dozens of others on CDs that Eddie had inherited from his father. But almost all of them, May refused to left Eddie listen to during the short time that he was living under her roof with her and Peter.

"Yeah, 'Crazy Devil Music'." Peter said, mimicking his aunt's voice the best he could. "Though really, man, we have to set you up with an iPod. Or, God strike me down for suggesting it, a Zune at least…"

"What? And miss the soothing quality of a compact disc? No way." Eddie said, laughing a little. Of course, Eddie had planned before to put all his music on his computer, but had just never gotten around to it, it had seemed. A few moments passed in silence as Eddie sifted through the box, checking that every CD was in its proper place.

"So…uh…I got the job at the _Bugle_." Peter said.

"That's good, man." Eddie said, not looking up from the CDs. "I'm glad for you." Another moment of silence passed and, of course, Peter had to open his mouth again.

"I know about your job at the lab, Eddie-" Peter started.

"Don't worry about it, bro." Eddie cut him off, raising a hand to stop him.

"I can talk to Mr. Robertson, maybe we can-" Peter started to stammer out something.

"Pete, just drop it, okay?" Eddie cut him off once again.

"Well, I'm sorry is all." Peter huffed, relenting.

"You don't have anything to be sorry for." Eddie said, his entire demeanor seeming to change. Peter noticed his brow furrowing and his hand clenching the corner of the box it rested on even more tightly. "The only one who has anything to be sorry for is Spider-Man."

"Spider-Man?" Peter stared at him.

"He destroyed the lab, that robot spider thing…that must have been his." Eddie said. "Guess he couldn't keep his tech under control."

"Oh, c'mon, Eddie. There was no way that spider could have been his!" Peter insisted.

"I don't care!" Eddie snapped, slamming his fist against the side of his bed, gritting his teeth. "That wall crawling arachnid better hope I never find out who he is under that mask! Because if I do, I'll-" He stopped, seeming to apparently get a hold himself again. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he opened them open more, looking to Peter. "I should get some rest…"

"Yeah, of course." Peter said, nodding.

"Thanks for bringing my CDs, bro." Eddie said.

"Anytime, Eddie," Peter said with a smile. "See ya." Eddie waved a goodbye as Peter got up and had headed toward the door, stepping out into the hall. When he knew Eddie couldn't see, Peter dropped the blank expression, looking rather horrified. '_Well, that makes three people I can never tell…_' He thought with a sigh.

* * *

"Gwen, I'm Spider-Man…"

Peter stopped, as though waiting for a response. "Gwen, I'm Spider-Man." He said again, again pausing for her to say something. But Gwen Stacy wasn't there to answer. No one stood in Peter Parker's bathroom but Peter Parker himself. '_Okay, that wasn't too hard to say…_' Peter thought as he looked glumly at his reflection. '_So why can't I actually _say_ it?_' He thought. Then again, he hadn't ever told Aunt May, either. She still thought that Spider-Man was just "some crazy kid".

'_I can't tell them though…can I_?' Peter thought as he walked away from the sink, heading to go and change into his clothing. He slipped on a simple, short sleeved white t-shirt over a long-sleeved gray one (which luckily hid his webshooters from view), and slipped on a faded pair of blue jeans before heading out from his room. Downstairs, he could smell the sound of Aunt May making…

"Wheatcakes!" Peter grinned as he stepped down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Your favorite, I know." May chuckled as she flipped them out of the skillet and onto a plate, bringing them to the table as Peter took his seat.

"Thanks, Aunt May! You're the greatest!" Peter said with a grinned as he picked up his fork and tucked in.

"Think nothing of it, sweetheart." May gave a chuckle as she ruffled her nephew's hair, passing by him to head over to the sink, picking up the skillet along the way. "Don't you and Gwen have a date this evening?" She asked.

"Hmm…" Peter muttered through a mouthful of the food, swallowing it before he spoke again. "Yes, yeah, we do. Going to something for the Science Society again."

"Well, I hope you'll be more prompt this time than the last function the two of you attended." May said, giving him a pointed look as she washed out the skillet in the sink, reminding Peter of the night at Oscorp Towers where he had met Norman Osborn himself.

"Yes, Aunt May." Peter said, sighing a bit. "We've already worked it out. After school, straight here to change, and then straight over to Gwen's to pick her up."

"Good to see you two have a plan." May said.

"Well, it was Gwen's idea, but yes." Peter said.

"Ah! I thought so." May said, chuckling again as she dried the skillet with a dish cloth. "She always did seem to have a better head than you did. I just knew she'd snatch you up."

"Oh, c'mon, how could you have known that?" Peter asked, laughing.

"I told you, I'm your Aunt, I see things that even you can't." May said, chuckling and taping the side of her nose in a knowing manner. "But I knew from the moment you came home from that first day in third grade, how you talked about that new girl you'd met. You might not have known it then, but you were smitten. And I knew." Peter would have said he doubted her, but he had come to realize that his aunt was a lot more perceptive than he had ever thought. In more recent months, though, he had managed to keep at least _one_ big secret from her. "Finish up your cakes, Peter, don't you have a girlfriend to pick up for school?" May asked.

"Huh? Oh, right, right." Peter said, nodding as he munched on a piece of wheatcake he'd cut. '_Well…maybe I should ask Aunt May what she thinks, maybe it's time I kind of…ease her into it. But how do I word it without letting her know right away?_' He thought. "Aunt May?"

"Yes, dear?" May asked, turning back to him with an attentive look on her face.

Peter took a deep breath, then spoke, "I…" his eye suddenly caught smoke rising from one of the skillets on the oven. "Your eggs are burning…"

"Oh, goodness!" May exclaimed as she reached over to turn off the skillet and started fanning the smoke so it wouldn't set off the fire alarm. After she had done this, she turned back to Peter. "Now what was it you wanted to say, dear?"

"Oh…nothing." Peter said, munching on another piece of wheatcake. '_Come up with a better plan next time, Webhead.'_ He thought. No, there was no way he could tell his Aunt. No way he could ask for advice on telling Gwen. He'd have to do this alone.

* * *

The school day went by in a haze, Peter not really keeping his focus on it all. It still confounded him that there hadn't been another attack from those robot spiders since a few nights before at the demonstration (though he hadn't been blind to the _Bugle_ blaming the whole thing on Spider-Man, and he wondered whether that had been Jameson's doing or Osborn's). Still, he put that all aside for what was to come tonight.

'_What was it again?_' Peter thought as worked on his tie in the mirror once he'd gotten home. He couldn't remember exactly what Gwen had said it was. Something to do with the Hardy Foundation again, and hopefully with nothing to do with Oscorp (he could only hope). After securing his tie, he headed out, giving Aunt May a quick goodbye before heading getting on his motorcycle and taking off for the Stacey's apartment building.

'_Hopefully I can get there faster…_' Peter thought as he weaved his way through the streets, heading off from the Parker household and into the mean streets of New York. His prediction proved quite accurate as he soon found himself (about fifteen minutes and oh so many traffic violations later) at the apartment building that Gwen and George Stacy called home. Driving into the nearby alley, Peter effortlessly picked up his motorcycle with a single hand, a quick squat and he leaped up the side of the nearer building, his momentum propelling him between the two walls until he stood atop the roof of the Stacey's place.

'_Alright, this ought to go do for a good hiding spot._' He thought, as he hide his motorcycle between the roof access and the top most exposed part of the ventilation system, sticking a small spider tracer in the rim of the wheel, just in case. '_And now, off to get Gwen…_' He moved for the side of the roof. His Spider-Sense gave no indication that someone was watching, and he quickly began to crawl his way down to the fire escape on the far side, one of the floors of which went right to Gwen's window. He dropped onto the metal walkway, knocking on Gwen's window. A moment later, he saw her Gwen's face poke out against the glass and then open the window.

"Y'know, the front door works well too…" Gwen teased as she admitted Peter into her room.

"Well, considering your history with having giant lizards in your lobby, I decided to take the path less travelled." Peter laughed as he slid into the room, smoothing out his outfit. "How do I look?" He asked.

"A little ruffled, but workable." Gwen giggled, slipping her arm in to secure around her boyfriend's. "It's like I keep saying, you were made to wear suits."

"So you keep saying." Peter laughed a bit. "So…we've got a cab to catch, don't we?"

"That we do, Mr. Parker." Gwen said. "Off for another adventure in science. Yay!" She added with a tone of voice that seemed quite monotone, finishing it off with a laugh as she led him from the room.

* * *

Two cabs roughly an hour and a half later brought them to the Hardy Foundation Building.

"Seriously, is there _not_ a faster way to get around New York?" Gwen asked.

"It's probably karma balancing out, since we got to the dinner at Oscorp a few weeks back so fast." Peter said.

"Uh huh…" Gwen said, giving him a look as they got out of the cab.

"Yeah, I know…overthinking it." Peter said, waving this off as he got out with her. The two of them headed up the stone steps after paying the cab, arriving at the two glass doors that were opened by a pair of doormen, allowing them into the building. Peter could already hear the sound of whatever festivities the Hardies had planned. "God, I hate things like this…"

"Oh, c'mon, Pete, we can't always have a scientist willing to show off his experimental technology to just us." Gwen said, laughing. "We should feel honored, not a lot of people will get to see Doctor Morbius do this demonstration of the Recombinator."

"Oh! _That_'s what it was!" Peter exclaimed, suddenly remembering.

"You forgot?" Gwen asked, giving him a look with a raised brow as they proceeded up the steps toward the noise of the gathered group.

"No, of course not…" Peter said quickly, attempting to laugh it off in an incredibly unconvincing manner.

"Right, right," Gwen snickered, rolling her eyes as they walked up, "you've only wanted to see it since you found out that it existed."

"Why wouldn't I?" Peter asked. "From the way the story's told about it, it'll be just like walking into _Frankenstein_." '_Now I wish I could say I still liked that idea._' He thought, remembering well the things he'd seen with Doctor Connors' attempts at genetic crossbreeding. That had been bad enough, and yet people like Norman Osborn sought to weaponize that. '_Maybe I should have destroyed those vials of Prometheus when I had the chance_.' He thought. '_I guess it's no good thinking of that now…_' He mentally shrugged as the pair of them entered into a large ballroom. "And boy, I still feel underdressed…" He muttered.

"Relax, you look fine." Gwen insisted, then added playfully, "Except for the bowtie."

"Hey, bowties are cool!" Peter replied with no small bit of indignation.

"Of course, what was I thinking?" Gwen laughed as she waved it off, walking the carpeted path set before them.

"Crazy, that's what you were thinking." Peter laughed as he saw the form of Harry Osborn coming toward them out of the crowd.

"Save me!" He hissed.

"From what-?" Gwen started to ask, but it soon became clear when Felicia Hardy came from the crowd.

"Harry Osborn! It's rather rude of you to keep wandering off. Miss Allen and I-" Felicia started on him in a tone that told them she'd been berating him quick often that evening. Then, however, her sentence stopped as she noticed Peter and Gwen in the room. "Ah! Sorry! Hello…Mr. Parker and Miss Stacy, wasn't it?" She asked.

"Yes, that's us," Gwen said, "Pleasure to see you again, Miss Hardy."

"As it is to see you, Miss Stacy…Mr. Parker." Felicia said tersely, then turned her attentions back to Harry. "Come along now, Harry." She took his hand, leading him back to where a very, angry Liz Allen stood glaring daggers at Felicia.

"Will I go to Hell if I laugh?" Peter asked, seeing Harry being pulled away once more by Felicia.

"Nah, it's good for him. Builds character." Gwen snickered, pulling him over. "C'mon…we can at least try to help him out."

"Alright, alright." Peter said, laughing as he followed her over to Harry and the two blondes.

* * *

"Is it ready?"

"It is."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"Execute."

* * *

"Now, ladies and gentlemen! I ask that you all bring your attention to center stage." Michael Morbius was a tall, gaunt-faced man for someone barely past the age of twenty-two. Peter thought the guy looked way older than twenty-two, personally. Nevertheless, his attention was drawn more to the device that was secured by a harness above the stage where the young geneticist prodigy stood, speaking to the gathered crowd. "It is with great joy that I can present to you, the Neogenic Recombinator." He raised a hand to the device. "And, for the first time anywhere, I bring you a demonstration of its ability." At the far end of the stage part of the floor opened up, revealing a large capsule that held a bat within a reinforced glass carrier. "Here we have _Desmodus rotundus_, the vampire bat." He explained. "I will now introduce a new gene sequence within it, more in common with its cousin _Pteropus vampyrus_, to attempt to change its appetite. Behold!"

"Is this guy for real?" Peter whispered.

"Hush, Peter." Gwen chided himself, nudging his shoulder.

"I don't think that's how that works…" Peter muttered.

"I'm sure he would explain it, given the time, now hush." Gwen shushed him again. By this time, Morbius had already walked over to a control panel and the Recombinator had begun moving by his direction.

"…and now, ladies and gentlemen! Behold the power of the-"

Peter's Spider Sense went haywire. '_Oh, c'mon!_' He cursed in his thoughts before suddenly the fall behind Morbius began to collapse inward as the beam from the recombinator fired, hitting its target. The device was smashed by debris at the same moment Morbius leaped out of the way and the capsule containing the bat was toppled over, the containment shattered as the thing escaped. But no one was taking notice of the creature; they were more interested in the gigantic thing that had just force its way through the crumbling wall.

It was massive, exactly like the models that had been seen before. This one was different, though. Just the sheer size of it was enough to intimidate, but the previous models hadn't had the large backing this one had. A second machine seemed to be attached to it, on its back. From its rear, a large, mechanical extension curved upwards in a way not dissimilar to that of a scorpion's tail. But the design was completely unmistakable as one of Smythe's creations.

'_Great, Osborn…best timing ever!_' Peter thought as he was once more running with Gwen and the rest of the crowd that was bolting from the room. '_If this thing's coming after me like the other two did…then I gotta get gone quick…_' He added as he moved his way away from the main group, hearing the metallic limbs of the giant robot falling as it came closer to its quarry. '_Just how does it know that it's looking for me, anyway?_' He thought as saw to it that Gwen, Harry, and Liz were moving far ahead of the group before he headed down another hallway, digging his mask out from where he'd hidden it in his jacket. '_At least this gets me a chance to get out of that suit…_' He thought as he ducked into a nearby room marked "File Storage", quickly slipping his mask over his head. Amidst row after row of file cabinets stripping out of his suit in record time to reveal his costume beneath it.

'_Okay, now I just have to…_' Peter thought in the split second before his Spider Sense went off once more, the wall and the door he'd come through beginning to collapse and take the ceiling with it as the newest robot menace tore its way through and slammed right into him, knocking him off and forward. Maintaining consciousness, Peter tried to grasp onto the headpiece of the robot and found the surface to be not quite so agreeable with his ability to stick. '_Crap…_'

He fell back off the robot as they burst through the far wall and out into the night. Peter dropped, attempting to slow down his rate of descent before he shot out a webline and swung in an arc leading into another swing. But his Spider-Sense told him that the robot was not far behind at all, bearing down on him.

'_Crap…_' Peter thought as his mind raced to come up with his next move.

* * *

**A/N: Uh-oh…looks like Petey's got himself in a pickle against Alastair Smythe's latest creation. Will he succeed in destroying it? Or will the machinations of Smythe and Osborn win out? Find out in the next "exciting" chapter of "Night of the Spider-Slayer"…**


	5. Final Struggle

**Chapter Five**  
Final Struggle

"This will be a day long remembered. It will soon see the end of Spider-Man…" Smythe said as he watched the monitor depicting the Spider Slayer's field of version.

"I hope you are right, Alastair." Norman spoke, standing next to his chair as he, too, watched the monitors. "It is a shame to have to kill him…but he has given us no choice."

"His remains will serve your purposes just as well, Mr. Osborn…" Alastair's teeth were gritted. Every molecule of his being wished he could atomize that red and blue menace off the face of the earth.

"Nothing beats the study of a live specimen, Alastair…but perhaps had you spent more of your efforts in genetics and less in robotics, you would know that." Norman retorted.

"If one were to combine both, perhaps we could get somewhere." Alastair replied sarcastically as he watched the screens before them. Spider-Man had just dodged another blast of the Slayer's tail mounted laser as it took out part of a building.

"Yes…perhaps…" Norman said, though Alastair didn't pay the man much mind, his eyes glued to the screens before him as he prepared to feed any necessary instructions to the Slayer.

* * *

'_Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap…_' Peter's mind was still racing as he dodged another blast from his pursuer. Another chunk of rubble fell from the building where he'd been crouched for a split second in between his swings, taking off once more before it was blown apart and sent falling to the ground far below. '_There's got to be something I can do to get this thing out of the city…_' The falling debris he couldn't stop to keep from crushing the people below was bad enough, but at the rate they were going he was going to tire out long before this robot had ever run out of steam.

'_I suppose I could try the water trick…maybe Madame Web will swoop in and save my sorry butt again…_' Peter thought. He doubted he was going to get that lucky twice, however, but the plan was still plenty solid. Water and robotics weren't the best of combinations, after all. Now he just had to get it to its final destination. '_Shouldn't be too hard, the thing seems hell bent on following me…_' He thought as he swung around the corner of another building. '_Okay…this is West and Canal Street, so…okay, idea…_' Peter thought, allowing himself to drop and narrowly avoid another blast of laser fire.

"Water, water everywhere…" Peter quipped as he swung around toward the entrance of the tunnel, another blast hitting the moment before he landed, collapsing the roof and filling the air with the sound of screeching brakes and car horns going off. '_Crap…_' He thought as he leaped back around toward the water once again. '_Okay…gotta time this just right…_' He thought as he fell backwards toward the water, finally getting a good look at the massive robotic scorpion that pursued him. Marvel of engineering that he really, _really_ needed off his back right now.

As soon as he felt his foot hit the water and seeing the robot about the strike him, Peter shot off a webline and propelled himself back toward the island. Hitting the side of a building, Peter stuck right to the side and looked back to see his quarry had apparently taken the bait and was dropping beneath the water.

'_Okay, I'd chalk this up as a win…_' Peter thought, allowing himself to breathe once again.

* * *

"Well, Alastair. It seems as though you failed again…" Norman said in a tone of complete contempt, watching as the camera feed from the Slayer showed only its descent to the bottom of the river it had just plunged into in pursuit of Spider-Man.

"Not quiet, Mr. Osborn." Alastair laughed, reaching over and flipping a switch on the control panel. "Perhaps Spider-Man thinks he's clever…I, however, have thought ahead."

His Spider-Sense went off again.

'_Oh, mother…hubbard!_' Peter thought as his eyes turned to the water once more. The waves rippling from the descent of the robot were now joined by others as it had apparently made a massive U-turn and was coming right back. '_Water resistant…should have seen that coming…_' He chided himself as he dodged another blast the moment the thing's tail came up from the water. Once more, he took to swinging. After the second swing, however, he attempted to swing again to receive only the sound of air from his wrist.

'_Oh, of all the times!_' He huffed in frustration as he allowed himself to drop a few feet before firing a shot from his other wrist. On the one shooter, he knew he could get a little more distance. '_Still need a better plan…_'

* * *

"Interesting…" Alastair said.

"What is that?" Norman asked.

"It appears that Spider-Man's webs are not an organic production." Alastair said.

"How do you reason that?" Norman inquired.

"Look at how he swings…" Alastair said, pointing to the screen. It was plain to see the vigilante was shooting his webs from his left wrist alone now. "It seems as though his right wrist can no longer produce the webbing."

"Interesting," Norman said, "I wonder how he does it."

"A chemical compound, perhaps?" Alastair hypothesized. "Produced from a device of some sort?"

"Possibly, though this one hardly seems the Tony Stark type." Norman said.

"Genius has nothing to do with affluence, Mr. Osborn." Alastair said. "If he has the mind, he will have found the means."

"Man after my own heart…" Norman replied with something that vaguely seemed like an approving tone, and Alastair was surprised to not hear even the slightest hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Nevertheless, he has given us an easier target, limited his movements…" Alastair said. It was then that an alarm blared and his attention was brought to a screen next to the camera feed, his hands going to a keyboard as a schematic of the Slayer appeared on the screen.

"What's the matter?" Norman inquired, looking to Alastair and then turning his attention to the screen.

"The abdominal casing is experiencing some overheating…" Alastair said as he typed out some commands on his keyboard. "I'm bringing some coolant in. Shouldn't be a problem."

"I hope not…" Norman said, but Alastair just shook his head.

"The worst it can do is short out the camera feed," Alastair said, "and in that case, it still has the genetic tracker."

"Yes…very good, then." Norman said as their attention returned to the screen displaying the camera feed.

* * *

'_This sucks out loud…_' Peter thought as he was now moving from rooftop to rooftop, having run out of webbing in his other shooter, and having had no pause to stop and reload.

Because, after all, having a giant crazy robot death scorpion bearing down on you trying to blast you into atoms wasn't exactly helpful in that.

'_There's got to be something I can do…_' He thought as he vaulted from one roof to another. Hitting the next roof, he turned back to get a look at his pursuer once again. The giant scorpion seemed unphased by its bath and was quickly blasting its way towards him with reckless abandon. His eye, however, was drawn to right behind its head, where electricity moved freely in arcs. '_Okay…that's an idea…_' He thought as he dodged another blast from the tail. '_Now I just need to get it…there!_' He leaped from the roof, heading for the ground. His eyes caught an access point for a grounding cable.

Peter dodged a blast that crumbled the cement and gave him perfect access to grab at the cabling beneath, managing with his strength to pull some of it free, grateful to find it could snake out a few feet. He was even more grateful as he leaped upward to meet the head of the robot he had been chased by, leaping up and managing to fix himself on top of its head.

"Alright, pal…you're grounded!" Peter quipped as he brought the exposed end of the grounding cable to where he could now see some of the paneling had been burnt by the robot's internal workings (by his guess). '_Rubber soles, don't fail me now._' He thought as he held the wire to the exposed spot.

* * *

"What's going on?!" Norman demanded as they watched the camera feed breaking up. Alastair worked furiously, attempting to reestablish the feed.

"The grounding cable…" Alastair said. "He must have found a way to short it out…"

"How?!" Norman snapped angrily, watching as Alastair once more brought up the schematic of the Slayer once more. The abdomen was highlighted in a flashing red.

"The casing…the paneling must have been fried by the heat." Alastair said, his teeth gritting in frustration. "And he found a way to short circuit it…"

"I thought you said this couldn't fail, Alastair!" Norman sneered, his voice filled to the brim with seething rage.

"I _didn't_ fail!" Alastair snarled back. He slammed his fists against the keyboard. "I didn't fail!"

"Yes, you did." Norman retorted, furiously and with great contempt. "Your project is a failure, Alastair…and you _know_ what that means…"

Alastair turned to Norman just in time to see and feel the man's hands seize him at the shoulders with an astounding grip. The young man found himself howling in pain as he heard his arm bones cracking.

* * *

His Spider-Sense going off once more alerted him only a few seconds before the head of the Scorpion exploded in a brilliant flash of light. Peter leaped out of the way of any debris, but couldn't avoid the force of the explosion that sent him flying back a good dozen feet or so. He reached out to shoot a webline, and remembered a split second too late that he was out of webbing, making his first impact against the ground.

'_Ow…ow…ow…_' Peter thought with each impact against the ground as he hit the asphalt and rolled, eventually his motion stopped as he lost momentum. '_It was then our hero learned a valuable lesson about being tossed down the street…it hurts like crap, man._' Peter thought as he did his best to rise, feeling soreness all over his body. He knew from the sharp pains all over that his costume had been torn in a few places, including across his mouth. A quick touch with a numbed hand revealed, however, that most of his mask was at least intact, and thus so was his identity.

He took a quick look around. The place looked like a bomb had gone off. Several cars had been toss aside or severely damage or in some cases completely torn apart. Laser burns had blasted through some of the asphalt and the buildings, debris all over the place and effectively a massive crater where the Scorpion had been a whole piece of metal only moments before.

'_Well…could be worse…_' Peter thought as he heard the not so distant sound of police sirens going off. '_And that's my cue to make like Houdini…_' He added as he headed for the nearest alley, working his way through the gathering crowd.

* * *

"…you won't…get away…"

"Really, Alastair, you know far better than that." Norman sneered as he hoisted the man from his wheelchair, his broken legs and arms left dangling as the man tried in vain to struggle against his grip. Norman knew he wasn't going to break free. Even if he did, he wouldn't get far.

"They'll come looking for you…" Alastair spat. "After that…after how much of the city was destroyed. They'll know that robot was yours…"

"Yes, the robot was indeed mine. Hijacked by a disgruntled employee by the name of Alastair Smythe…sent out on some ill-conceived revenge plot." Norman cut him off, laughing at the man as he took him from the control room.

"W-What?"

"Your fingerprints are all over the controls, Alastair." Norman laughed as he walked them down the hallway. "Not to mention, every single access code that was input was your own."

"You…you set me up!" Alastair yelled as he realized what had happened.

"Only if you failed…" Norman said. "But now I must deliver you into the hands of someone far more competent than you have proven to be." Coming to another doorway, a laser projected above the door scanned him and it opened automatically, revealing one of the many laboratories that filled the facility. Norman could see the recognition in Alastair's eyes when he realized the section they were in – genetics. "I've brought you a present…"

Norman smiled, his eyes turning to a man with a balding head, and deep black eyes that seemed like tunnels with no end. The man smiled.

"…Warren!" Alastair spat.

"Ah! I see you two are acquainted, Alastair." Norman said. "Good." He slung Alastair onto a nearby table, wrist and ankle straps immediately locking around him as soon as the sensor within the table felt his weight. It wouldn't have mattered, the man couldn't move regardless. Warren walked over with a look of absolute glee in his eyes, standing next to Norman.

"I'll see what I can do, Mr. Osborn." Warren said, a face-splitting grin clear on his face as he looked over the new specimen. "I look forward to working on him."

"Turning me into one of your potato batteries, Warren?" Alastair snorted in derision, defiant to the last. Norman had to admire that, not an ounce of fear in the man's eyes as he stared the two men above him down.

"Oh, not in the least, Alastair," Norman laughed and shook his head, "no, despite your recent failures, you have in the past proven to be an adequate employee…I see only fit that you are suited for a higher purpose. Warren, get the sedative…" As Warren walked over, taking a syringe from the tray nearest the table where Alastair was strapped down, Norman could start to see it: fear, flooding in behind his irises, even now as he tried to hide it from him.

But it was no use.

"If my father were alive…" Alastair tried to give some sort of rebuttal.

"Yes…your father." Norman laughed. "Getting in the way of things…he who would have stopped producing such fine robots for me? I admit now, though, perhaps he ought to have been allowed to live…seeing how poorly his creations have performed."

"**YOU BASTARD**!" Alastair bellowed at the top of his lungs, his voice echoing throughout the lab for several seconds after he had yelled. Norman's grin could split his face, knowing that Alastair now knew what had happened to his father.

"Begin your work, Warren…I look forward to seeing it." Norman said, chuckling as he slid his hands into his pockets once more and turned, walking away from the lab.

"Yes, sir, Mr. Osborn." Warren replied, Norman catching the sight of him injecting Alastair with the syringe as he turned around.

"**GODDAMN YOU, NORMAN! GODDAMN YOU!**" Alastair yelled. "**GOD…damn**…you…" The sedative was fast acting, and soon Alastair had been forced into a comatose state.

"He already has, boy." Norman sneered as he heard the doors seal behind him after leaving the room. "He already has."

* * *

"I can't believe you hid yourself in the janitor's closet." Gwen chided him.

"I didn't _hide_ in the janitor's closet," Peter insisted, "I fell _into_ the janitor's closet in the rush from that robot thing."

"And got scraped up and hit in the head, it seems." Gwen sighed, shaking her head.

"I'm fine, Gwen, honest." Peter said, laughing. "Just a little debris collapsed on me. That's all."

"I wished you'd at least let the paramedics take a look at you." Gwen said, biting her lip slightly.

"Nah...besides, everything works fine." Peter said, laughing a bit, trying to play off the horrendous amount of pain he felt all over. But he could still walk and he had no real major damage, so he couldn't complain. His fights with Kraven and the Lizard had gotten him more scratched up than this…at least that _would_ be the case without his forced meeting with some of New York's fine streets. For the most part, he was overjoyed to not have been blasted into atoms by that robot.

"Oh, sure, sure," Gwen said, gently poking his rib with her finger. It was one of the few times he wished his Spider Sense would have kicked in. But then, Gwen wasn't endangering him, so he took the hit regardless, wincing and giving a low hiss of pain. "Sorry…" She said with a sheepish grin, leaning up and planting a kiss on his cheek.

"Yeah…no problem, I can get new ribs…" Peter teased, chuckling. Gwen laughed and carefully wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's waist.

"Well, you're not doing anything strenuous for a few days at least." She said, giving him a look that gave him no room to have an argument about it. "And I'll be sticking around to make sure you don't." She added with a bit of a smug grin.

"Oh? And Aunt May is okay with you staying over?" Peter asked with a laugh.

"Yep, actually," Gwen chuckled as she snuggled into Peter's side, "I convinced her. Apparently she's under some _crazy_ delusion that we've got a thing for each other."

"Really?" Peter laughed. "I can't _imagine_ where she might have gotten that idea."

"Me either." Gwen chuckled. "Must be an old person thing."

"Must be…" Peter chuckled, feeling Gwen snuggled against him. Right now, there was nowhere on Earth he'd rather be, and he hoped to everything that he wasn't going to have to deal with any more giant robots.

* * *

It awoke, but its eyes did not open. It didn't know how long it had been asleep. Had it been hours…days…weeks…months? There was no real way for him to know. Somehow, it didn't matter to him, either.

"_Is it finished?"_

It hears the words, even through the liquid that envelops it body. it can feel it, covering every part of its body as it soaks in it.

"_Alastair is prepared at last…I'm surprised the injection did as well as we expected._"

Another voice, speaking other words it can hear. Alastair? Injection? It has no idea what these things mean, though it almost feels as though it should.

"_Bring him online…I'm interested to see how it works…_"

The first voice again, and suddenly it feels its eyes open. It is awake. The fluid drains from where it lies down, in a large capsule, surrounded on three sides by reinforced glass. Its arms are restrained for a moment, then no longer. He begins to move as the glass around him is lifted away by mechanics, and he rises and stumbles onto a cold, metal floor.

Breathing comes easily to it. Like a newborn infant, it quickly adapts to the sudden change in its environment and inhales, then exhales, all in a slow cycle. Its eyes gaze around, finding itself in a massive room. Something within its mind seemed to trigger. It had been here before, knew that it had. But it couldn't remember.

"Face us…"

It felt a compulsion, an utter _need_ to do as it was bade. And so, it did. It turned to face the two voices that had been speaking to it.

"Is it safe?" The man in black, standing with his hands in his pockets, asked.

"Yes…" The man in the white coat spoke in reply. "An inhibitor prevents him from causing harm to either of us."

Inhibitor? It didn't know what that meant, either.

"Good…good." The man in black stepped forward, and it felt a strange need to back away but could not, standing completely still before the two observers. "Alright, then, Alastair…What say we get you ready for a little spider hunt?"

It _did_ rather like that idea.

* * *

**A/N: Oh, so much more to come. Trust, this story isn't even halfway over. Just remember as we go on just becomes the robots are called "Spider Slayers" doesn't mean the title's just referring to them. And now that I've opened the flood gates of speculation, I'll leave you guys to debate. Hopefully the next chapter will be soon…**


End file.
